Page last updated: 6 February 2023
This article on 1918 is in two sections: January-April 1918 appears below. For May-December 1918: click here.
Despite numerous and persistent rumours, there was no intention among Republicans to mount a second Rising in 1918.
Both Sinn Fein and the Volunteers concentrated on strengthening the political movement than on arming and preparing for confrontation with British forces. The Peace Conference was seen as the great hope of the future, where the claims of nations long denied political freedom would be heard. The issue of independence had not yet been put to the people and Sinn Fein began to organise this with a Sinn Fein club or Cumman in every parish in Ireland, each with a council of delegates in each electoral constituency.
The most basic priority for the greater population was simply, food.
Every nation was involved with conservation and economy of it's food supply but in Ireland, foodstuffs continued to be exported in increasingly larger volumes. The Irish Food Control Committee protested and independent members finally resigned as vital supplies were exported to Britain. Food supply had quickly developed into an incredibly contentious issue. The Irish population, as with so many other European populations of the time, was largely under-nourished. However, the impact of the Famine a mere generation before made the food issue far more acute and far more emotional. The Irish population fears of an imminent second Famine were certainly well founded and capatalised upon politically. Sinn Fein insisted that the country could only be saved from starvation if producers sold food internally rather than export to Britain. Unionist sentiment disagreed. Private farmers were doing extremely well from the unlimited demand which also caused some resentment.
Both Sinn Fein and the Volunteers concentrated on strengthening the political movement than on arming and preparing for confrontation with British forces. The Peace Conference was seen as the great hope of the future, where the claims of nations long denied political freedom would be heard. The issue of independence had not yet been put to the people and Sinn Fein began to organise this with a Sinn Fein club or Cumman in every parish in Ireland, each with a council of delegates in each electoral constituency.
The most basic priority for the greater population was simply, food.
Every nation was involved with conservation and economy of it's food supply but in Ireland, foodstuffs continued to be exported in increasingly larger volumes. The Irish Food Control Committee protested and independent members finally resigned as vital supplies were exported to Britain. Food supply had quickly developed into an incredibly contentious issue. The Irish population, as with so many other European populations of the time, was largely under-nourished. However, the impact of the Famine a mere generation before made the food issue far more acute and far more emotional. The Irish population fears of an imminent second Famine were certainly well founded and capatalised upon politically. Sinn Fein insisted that the country could only be saved from starvation if producers sold food internally rather than export to Britain. Unionist sentiment disagreed. Private farmers were doing extremely well from the unlimited demand which also caused some resentment.
Dublin: ‘It was calculated that the food of the country would not be sufficient for more than six months, yet the English Food Controller overruled every effort of his Irish advisors to conserve supplies in Ireland. The country was faced with another artificial famine.’
Dorothy Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin. 1951. p.240.
In an effort to contain these losses, compulsory tillage was promoted by all parties. Sinn Fein, in particular, planned to promote tillage and satisfy the land hunger in the West of Ireland, where grazing lands of large estates would be managed by the local Sinn Fein clubs. There, the lands would be cleared and divided into conacre and leased to tenants at a fixed price of £4 an acre, with rents then paid to the landowner.
Kevin O'Sheil (1891-1970) later to become a Judicial Commissioner in the Dail Eireann Land Courts 1920-22 and Commissioner of the Irish Land Commission 1923-53 recalled the perilous food supply situation in Ireland in 1917-18:
Dorothy Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin. 1951. p.240.
In an effort to contain these losses, compulsory tillage was promoted by all parties. Sinn Fein, in particular, planned to promote tillage and satisfy the land hunger in the West of Ireland, where grazing lands of large estates would be managed by the local Sinn Fein clubs. There, the lands would be cleared and divided into conacre and leased to tenants at a fixed price of £4 an acre, with rents then paid to the landowner.
Kevin O'Sheil (1891-1970) later to become a Judicial Commissioner in the Dail Eireann Land Courts 1920-22 and Commissioner of the Irish Land Commission 1923-53 recalled the perilous food supply situation in Ireland in 1917-18:
http://www.bureauofmilitaryhistory.ie/reels/bmh/BMH.WS1770%20Section%206.pdf#page=11
Laurence Nugent of Athy, Co. Kildare, a Lieutenant of 'K' Company, 3rd Battalion, Dublin Brigade recalled the food shortages of the time:
Laurence Nugent of Athy, Co. Kildare, a Lieutenant of 'K' Company, 3rd Battalion, Dublin Brigade recalled the food shortages of the time:
http://www.bureauofmilitaryhistory.ie/reels/bmh/BMH.WS0907.pdf#page=109
Diarmuid Lynch, as the newly appointed Sinn Fein Director of Food (essentially the first Minister for Agriculture) began to take action. A food census was undertaken nationwide with requests on information as to the level of food supply in all parishes.
The Ard Comhairle (Chief Council) of Sinn Fein called upon "producers of, and dealers in, necessary foodstuffs to 'co-operate in the imperative duty of saving the Irish people from starvation by selling only to buyers for exclusive Irish use', it urged the workers in the country, on the railways and at the ports to refuse to co-operated in the exportation of food and called upon the public to treat food exporters as common enemies.
Robert Mitchell Henry. 'The Evolution of Sinn Fein'
Diarmuid Lynch, as the newly appointed Sinn Fein Director of Food (essentially the first Minister for Agriculture) began to take action. A food census was undertaken nationwide with requests on information as to the level of food supply in all parishes.
The Ard Comhairle (Chief Council) of Sinn Fein called upon "producers of, and dealers in, necessary foodstuffs to 'co-operate in the imperative duty of saving the Irish people from starvation by selling only to buyers for exclusive Irish use', it urged the workers in the country, on the railways and at the ports to refuse to co-operated in the exportation of food and called upon the public to treat food exporters as common enemies.
Robert Mitchell Henry. 'The Evolution of Sinn Fein'
Irish Convention: Midleton returned from London with a written pledge drafted by Lord Desart and initialled by Lloyd George, that if the Southern Unionist scheme were carried by substantial agreement (i.e. by all except Ulster), the Prime Minister would use his influence to give it legislative effect.
Personal Columns in daily newspapers of the era are a microcosm of society. Take for example these adverts which appeared in the Daily Telegraph on New Year's day, 1918. One was a simple statement of intent from an unknown person stating what they will never do again with a German.
As for the others, for more than 300 years, newspapers ran advertisements from men publicly announcing their wives had left them, and that they would no longer “be responsible for her debts.’’ Hundreds of thousands of ads like these ran in virtually every newspaper across the country in most English speaking nations, from provincial small town weeklies to larger circulation national dailies such as The London Times, The Irish Times, The Daily Telegraph (above), The Boston Globe and The New York Times. While suffrage and the gradual progress towards equal rights saw these adverts diminish, the tradition, surprisingly, lasted into the mid 1980s in the United States when the ads largely stopped appearing. Click here for an interesting article on the entire subject. |
From examples in the London Daily Telegraph of this date, the food supply in January 1918 was the most pressing issue on the homes front:
Irish Convention: When the Convention re-assembled, at the close of the debate Redmond rose to make a powerful plea to the Convention for agreement and to table an amendment that supported the Midleton Plan as a settlement of the Irish question, under the strict condition that the government commit itself to giving legislative effect to the deal, which would mean enforcing it on Ulster.
Ulster Unionists, influenced by their southern counterparts, wavered towards a settlement, as indicated by Berrie's assurances to Midleton the previous day. Many at the time (including Midleton) thought that a deal was in the offing. Everything hinged upon timing, a speedy settlement was essential. There was considerable feeling that the Convention was on the verge of a settlement. At this point a major error of judgment was again made by the chairman Horace Plunkett when he intervened and rather than clearing the timetable to rush through a division and vote on agreement, he asserted his authority, insisting it was too early to take a vote and diverted by initiating a lengthy debate on land purchase. The only positive outcome of this debate was that it formed the basis of the later Free State's Land Act (1923).
Lord Southborough, who as Convention secretary was in touch with all groups, believed that if a division had been taken just then, Ulster might have even come in, at most only two negative votes would have been cast. Midleton blamed Plunkett as being a ‘stickler for forms’.
John Redmond as leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, addressing the Irish Convention in Dublin, somewhat modestly in a mood of compromise said ‘My modest ambition would be to serve in some humble capacity under the first Unionist prime minister of Ireland.’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.44
Lenin opened peace negotiations between Russia and Germany meanwhile the Finnish Declaration of Independence is recognized by Russia, Sweden, Germany and France.
Former US President Theodore Roosevelt suggested that leading Irish Americans should be imprisoned as ‘enemy aliens’.
"...With the passing into American law of the Espionage Act in June 1917, new and intrusive restrictions had been applied to publications, meetings, speeches and lobbying of politicians – all activities which had been key tools in the campaign of the FOIF and Clan na Gael. Furthermore, with America’s entry to the First World War, the close relationship fostered since 1914 between German Americans and Irish Americans was viewed with cold suspicion by the authorities..."
Eileen McGough. 'Diarmuid Lynch - A Forgotten Irish Patriot' Mercier Press, 2013. P98
Ulster Unionists, influenced by their southern counterparts, wavered towards a settlement, as indicated by Berrie's assurances to Midleton the previous day. Many at the time (including Midleton) thought that a deal was in the offing. Everything hinged upon timing, a speedy settlement was essential. There was considerable feeling that the Convention was on the verge of a settlement. At this point a major error of judgment was again made by the chairman Horace Plunkett when he intervened and rather than clearing the timetable to rush through a division and vote on agreement, he asserted his authority, insisting it was too early to take a vote and diverted by initiating a lengthy debate on land purchase. The only positive outcome of this debate was that it formed the basis of the later Free State's Land Act (1923).
Lord Southborough, who as Convention secretary was in touch with all groups, believed that if a division had been taken just then, Ulster might have even come in, at most only two negative votes would have been cast. Midleton blamed Plunkett as being a ‘stickler for forms’.
John Redmond as leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, addressing the Irish Convention in Dublin, somewhat modestly in a mood of compromise said ‘My modest ambition would be to serve in some humble capacity under the first Unionist prime minister of Ireland.’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.44
Lenin opened peace negotiations between Russia and Germany meanwhile the Finnish Declaration of Independence is recognized by Russia, Sweden, Germany and France.
Former US President Theodore Roosevelt suggested that leading Irish Americans should be imprisoned as ‘enemy aliens’.
"...With the passing into American law of the Espionage Act in June 1917, new and intrusive restrictions had been applied to publications, meetings, speeches and lobbying of politicians – all activities which had been key tools in the campaign of the FOIF and Clan na Gael. Furthermore, with America’s entry to the First World War, the close relationship fostered since 1914 between German Americans and Irish Americans was viewed with cold suspicion by the authorities..."
Eileen McGough. 'Diarmuid Lynch - A Forgotten Irish Patriot' Mercier Press, 2013. P98
Cork: Cathal Brugha, Diarmuid Lynch and Con Collins were secretly in Cork conducting an inquiry into the alleged 'inaction' of the Cork Volunteers during Easter 1916.
When the majority of prisoners arrested throughout the country in connection with the Easter Week rebellion were released in December 1916, there was a re-organisation of the Volunteer movement. There then followed some dissatisfaction amongst the leadership with the percieved inactivity of the Volunteers in Cork, Limerick and Tralee during the Rising. To clarify the situation, senior officers of those areas demanded that an enquiry should be held by Dublin G.H.Q. of the Volunteers in each of the districts concerned. Lynch, Brugha and Collins conducted the enquiry and found after some weeks of examination that "that no blame could be attributed to the commands in question, as it was impossible for them to do anything in the circumstances."
When the majority of prisoners arrested throughout the country in connection with the Easter Week rebellion were released in December 1916, there was a re-organisation of the Volunteer movement. There then followed some dissatisfaction amongst the leadership with the percieved inactivity of the Volunteers in Cork, Limerick and Tralee during the Rising. To clarify the situation, senior officers of those areas demanded that an enquiry should be held by Dublin G.H.Q. of the Volunteers in each of the districts concerned. Lynch, Brugha and Collins conducted the enquiry and found after some weeks of examination that "that no blame could be attributed to the commands in question, as it was impossible for them to do anything in the circumstances."
Sean Murphy, Thomas Barry, Patrick Canton and James Wickham, Cork City Officers of the Irish Volunteers in their 1957 Bureau of Military History submission recalled:
Dublin: The British Food Control Committee of Ireland issued an order, and published it every major newspaper including the Cork Examiner. The Sugar Order (Ireland), 1917, contained provisions with reference to a rationing scheme of sugar distribution in Ireland.
Under the provisions of the Irish order, from 6 January 1918, manufacturers and caterers in Ireland had their supplies of sugar regulated by the authorities and institutions, and from 3 March, retailers and wholesalers were restricted. It was an offence from these respective dates to supply the different ‘classes of purchasers’ with sugar except against vouchers duly issued. The task of the distribution of sugar cards in Cork was entrusted to the members of the Royal Irish Constabulary. By the second week of January, the task was almost completed.
By mid January, all sugar card holders in Ireland had to be registered with their respective grocers who retained half the card. Grocers in the weeks before the scheme came into operation made their arrangements with the Ministry of Food for a regular supply of sugar to meet the needs of their customers, in accordance with the number of cards lodged with them. Questions were asked as to what quantities of sugar were to be given to adults and children. It was taken for granted that the adults' ration would be half-a-pound per week, as was the case in England. It was believed that in the case of children under sixteen that a slightly larger allowance was to be made. The system of receipt and checking of the rations as sold by the retailer to his customers was also an issue.
As sugar cards were being shared with the general public, the Irish Food Control Committee issued an appeal to the public to “exercise as much economy as possible in the use of essential foods, especially bread, butter, milk, and sugar”. The Committee suggested that bread and butter should be served only at breakfast. Eating bread at luncheon or dinner was according to them “merely an unnecessary habit for those who can afford fish, meat and vegetables”.
Butter it was stated, was so scarce that “any saving in the quantity hitherto used would be of assistance”.
Shane Leslie writing to Sir Arthur Gilbert: "My dear Arthur, If I ever achieved a definite point in smoothing out the Irish imbroglio it was yesterday when Cardinal O'Connell entertained the English and French Bishops in Boston. As you know, the Cardinal is the only person who at this moment can speak for Irish America..."
University of Maryland Internet Archives. Box: 6 Fold: 21.
Dora Sigerson Shorter, Irish poet and sculptor (born 1866; died in London).
Alf Smith (1873-1944) had attracted wide popularity as New York State Assembly leader and was elected to the first of four terms as governor. He defended civil liberties and attacked prohibition while streamlining the state's bureaucracy and advocating social reforms.
In Washington DC, President Wilson began work on a speech. Ever since the outbreak of the war, he had sought a pivotal role for America in the conflict. Wilson wanted to advance the nation's strategic and economic interests but also imagined a sweeping moral and democratic transformation of the struggle and one that would reshape the post war world.
Under the provisions of the Irish order, from 6 January 1918, manufacturers and caterers in Ireland had their supplies of sugar regulated by the authorities and institutions, and from 3 March, retailers and wholesalers were restricted. It was an offence from these respective dates to supply the different ‘classes of purchasers’ with sugar except against vouchers duly issued. The task of the distribution of sugar cards in Cork was entrusted to the members of the Royal Irish Constabulary. By the second week of January, the task was almost completed.
By mid January, all sugar card holders in Ireland had to be registered with their respective grocers who retained half the card. Grocers in the weeks before the scheme came into operation made their arrangements with the Ministry of Food for a regular supply of sugar to meet the needs of their customers, in accordance with the number of cards lodged with them. Questions were asked as to what quantities of sugar were to be given to adults and children. It was taken for granted that the adults' ration would be half-a-pound per week, as was the case in England. It was believed that in the case of children under sixteen that a slightly larger allowance was to be made. The system of receipt and checking of the rations as sold by the retailer to his customers was also an issue.
As sugar cards were being shared with the general public, the Irish Food Control Committee issued an appeal to the public to “exercise as much economy as possible in the use of essential foods, especially bread, butter, milk, and sugar”. The Committee suggested that bread and butter should be served only at breakfast. Eating bread at luncheon or dinner was according to them “merely an unnecessary habit for those who can afford fish, meat and vegetables”.
Butter it was stated, was so scarce that “any saving in the quantity hitherto used would be of assistance”.
Shane Leslie writing to Sir Arthur Gilbert: "My dear Arthur, If I ever achieved a definite point in smoothing out the Irish imbroglio it was yesterday when Cardinal O'Connell entertained the English and French Bishops in Boston. As you know, the Cardinal is the only person who at this moment can speak for Irish America..."
University of Maryland Internet Archives. Box: 6 Fold: 21.
Dora Sigerson Shorter, Irish poet and sculptor (born 1866; died in London).
Alf Smith (1873-1944) had attracted wide popularity as New York State Assembly leader and was elected to the first of four terms as governor. He defended civil liberties and attacked prohibition while streamlining the state's bureaucracy and advocating social reforms.
In Washington DC, President Wilson began work on a speech. Ever since the outbreak of the war, he had sought a pivotal role for America in the conflict. Wilson wanted to advance the nation's strategic and economic interests but also imagined a sweeping moral and democratic transformation of the struggle and one that would reshape the post war world.
Westminster: The British Prime Minister David Lloyd George set out in the clearest terms Britain’s aims as the Great War entered its fourth year. Speaking to trade union delegates at Westminster, Lloyd George said that Britain and its allies were fighting for a set of goals that included: the restoration of Belgium and reparation for its devastation; the restoration of Serbia, Montenegro, and the occupied parts of France, Italy, and Romania; reconsideration of the Alsace-Lorraine question; an independent Poland; self-government for Austria’s separate nationalities; an internationalised Dardanelles; and an international organisation to limit armaments and diminish the likelihood of future hostilities.
Alongside the list of what Britain wanted from the war, Lloyd George clarified the outcomes that Britain was not pursuing. Britain was not seeking the destruction Austria or of Germany’s position in the world, not looking to interfere with the German constitution, nor will it be pursuing any war indemnity. The Prime Minister’s speech was widely praised in British political circles and across the allied press. One Labour MP, J.H. Thomas, described it as a ‘magnificent step towards sanity’. Another Labour MP, Arthur Henderson, described it as a clear statement of war aims and saw in it a lesson for the future resolution of the Irish question.
‘We accept the principle of self-determination of nationalities. The future of Ireland depends upon the decision of a Convention of Irishmen now sitting in Dublin. The Labour Party will welcome without qualification any solution arrived at by the different parties and groups represented on that body.’
Sinn Fein was boycotting the Convention and the party's president, Éamon de Valera, likewise picked up on the Prime Minister’s reference to the ‘equality of right amongst nations, big and small’ being a fundamental war aim of the Allies. Questioned about Lloyd George’s speech by the Irish Independent, de Valera expressed the view that it was the ‘usual hypocritical cant’. ‘If England admits Ireland’s right to sovereign independence I shall be prepared to believe there is something genuine in it. On a plebiscite the great majority of the Irish people would vote for an independent Republic and separation from England"
Alongside the list of what Britain wanted from the war, Lloyd George clarified the outcomes that Britain was not pursuing. Britain was not seeking the destruction Austria or of Germany’s position in the world, not looking to interfere with the German constitution, nor will it be pursuing any war indemnity. The Prime Minister’s speech was widely praised in British political circles and across the allied press. One Labour MP, J.H. Thomas, described it as a ‘magnificent step towards sanity’. Another Labour MP, Arthur Henderson, described it as a clear statement of war aims and saw in it a lesson for the future resolution of the Irish question.
‘We accept the principle of self-determination of nationalities. The future of Ireland depends upon the decision of a Convention of Irishmen now sitting in Dublin. The Labour Party will welcome without qualification any solution arrived at by the different parties and groups represented on that body.’
Sinn Fein was boycotting the Convention and the party's president, Éamon de Valera, likewise picked up on the Prime Minister’s reference to the ‘equality of right amongst nations, big and small’ being a fundamental war aim of the Allies. Questioned about Lloyd George’s speech by the Irish Independent, de Valera expressed the view that it was the ‘usual hypocritical cant’. ‘If England admits Ireland’s right to sovereign independence I shall be prepared to believe there is something genuine in it. On a plebiscite the great majority of the Irish people would vote for an independent Republic and separation from England"
Washington: Wilson’s Fourteen Points were designed to establish the basis for a just and lasting peace following the victory of the Allies in World War I.
These 14 proposals were contained in Wilson's address to a joint session of the United States Congress on January 8, 1918.
The idealism expressed in them was widely acclaimed and gave Wilson a position of moral leadership among the Allied leaders. Opposition to various points on the part of the European Allies, however, developed at the conclusion of the war, and the attempt at practical application of the 14 points exposed a multilateral system of secret agreements between the European victors. In order to secure support of his 14th, and most important, point, which called for the creating of an “association of nations”, Wilson was compelled to abandon his insistence upon the acceptance of his full programme. Wilson's 14th point was realized in the League of Nations, established as a result of the Paris Peace Conference (1919).
Arizona: U.S. troops engage Yaqui Indian warriors in the Battle of Bear Valley in Arizona, a minor skirmish and one of the last battles of the American Indian Wars between the United States and Native Americans.
below: Samples of Food Control posters
These 14 proposals were contained in Wilson's address to a joint session of the United States Congress on January 8, 1918.
The idealism expressed in them was widely acclaimed and gave Wilson a position of moral leadership among the Allied leaders. Opposition to various points on the part of the European Allies, however, developed at the conclusion of the war, and the attempt at practical application of the 14 points exposed a multilateral system of secret agreements between the European victors. In order to secure support of his 14th, and most important, point, which called for the creating of an “association of nations”, Wilson was compelled to abandon his insistence upon the acceptance of his full programme. Wilson's 14th point was realized in the League of Nations, established as a result of the Paris Peace Conference (1919).
Arizona: U.S. troops engage Yaqui Indian warriors in the Battle of Bear Valley in Arizona, a minor skirmish and one of the last battles of the American Indian Wars between the United States and Native Americans.
below: Samples of Food Control posters
Westminster: The House of Lords voted by a majority of 63 (134 votes to 71) to extend suffrage to women.
The decision effectively clears plans to overhaul the voting system to allow for the addition of some 6 million women to the electoral register. The debate in the Lords centred on an amendment tabled by Earl Loreburn to remove women from the suffrage clauses in the reform bill. Loreburn contended that the enfranchisement of women was neither in the interests of the UK nor of women themselves. He questioned the wisdom of trusting the judgement of women in such grave matters as had to be decided by the House of Commons. He was not alone in voicing scepticism. In the course of the debate, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Finlay, worried whether six million women would provide the ‘vast material for pacifist agitation for a hurried peace’, while Earl Curzon feared the envisaged change would be ‘catastrophic’ and ‘irrevocable’.
Lord Lansdowne likewise sided with the opponents of women’s suffrage: not only did Lansdowne suggest that women were themselves ‘profoundly divided’ on the issue, he questioned whether Parliament had the right to make such a ‘revolutionary’ change. None of these arguments won out. Lord Selborne suggested that it was ‘pure delusion’ to imagine the House of Commons passing a reform bill that omitted women from the franchise any more than they would omit soldiers and sailors. The change, he argued, would ‘bring fresh power to the Empire’. The Archbishop of Canterbury was another who believed the time was right for taking a ‘plunge in the dark’, as to do otherwise would be to set the House against the wishes of the people and inaugurate a most deplorable controversy in the country. The majority of his fellow Lords clearly agreed with this position.
Welcoming the vote, the Irish Times has defended the decision to extend the franchise and rejected the inference put about by some peers that it would encourage ‘pacifism’. On the contrary, it would have been a ‘palpable injustice’ to withhold the vote from ‘a sex which has for the first time taken its full share in the national effort, and whose services will be needed in every department of reconstruction after the war’.
The decision effectively clears plans to overhaul the voting system to allow for the addition of some 6 million women to the electoral register. The debate in the Lords centred on an amendment tabled by Earl Loreburn to remove women from the suffrage clauses in the reform bill. Loreburn contended that the enfranchisement of women was neither in the interests of the UK nor of women themselves. He questioned the wisdom of trusting the judgement of women in such grave matters as had to be decided by the House of Commons. He was not alone in voicing scepticism. In the course of the debate, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Finlay, worried whether six million women would provide the ‘vast material for pacifist agitation for a hurried peace’, while Earl Curzon feared the envisaged change would be ‘catastrophic’ and ‘irrevocable’.
Lord Lansdowne likewise sided with the opponents of women’s suffrage: not only did Lansdowne suggest that women were themselves ‘profoundly divided’ on the issue, he questioned whether Parliament had the right to make such a ‘revolutionary’ change. None of these arguments won out. Lord Selborne suggested that it was ‘pure delusion’ to imagine the House of Commons passing a reform bill that omitted women from the franchise any more than they would omit soldiers and sailors. The change, he argued, would ‘bring fresh power to the Empire’. The Archbishop of Canterbury was another who believed the time was right for taking a ‘plunge in the dark’, as to do otherwise would be to set the House against the wishes of the people and inaugurate a most deplorable controversy in the country. The majority of his fellow Lords clearly agreed with this position.
Welcoming the vote, the Irish Times has defended the decision to extend the franchise and rejected the inference put about by some peers that it would encourage ‘pacifism’. On the contrary, it would have been a ‘palpable injustice’ to withhold the vote from ‘a sex which has for the first time taken its full share in the national effort, and whose services will be needed in every department of reconstruction after the war’.
In the US, the House of Representatives votes in favour of women over 25 allowed the vote.
James Horgan, James Roche and John Stack began the first significant hunger strike of 1918 when they were refused 'political treatment'. Transferred to Mountjoy on 14 January and all three released 10 days later.
Washington: Hannah Sheehy-Skeffington was granted an audience with President Wilson, who ‘listened carefully to her plea for the ‘recognition of an Irish Republic virtually in existence since April 1916’. To her friends she disclosed the fact that when she reminded the President of his ‘Irish ancestry’ he snapped back ‘Scotch-Irish, Madam!’
Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Independence 1866-1922’. Devin-Adair. 1957. p.241
The same day, President Wilson met with an Irish-American delegation led by Senator Phelan, who made a strong plea for Irish independence. President Wilson called Phelan’s attention to the fact that an Irish Convention was at that time in session in Dublin, considering the best form of Government for Ireland.
Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Independence 1866-1922’. Devin-Adair. 1957. p.241
The same day, President Wilson met with an Irish-American delegation led by Senator Phelan, who made a strong plea for Irish independence. President Wilson called Phelan’s attention to the fact that an Irish Convention was at that time in session in Dublin, considering the best form of Government for Ireland.
Dublin: Sinn Féin welcomed the recent establishment of the independent republic of Finland. The party’s Standing Committee passed a resolution congratulating the people of Finland on the ‘successful establishment of an independent Republic’. The resolution also expressed appreciation for the ‘enlightened’ action of the new government of Russia in recognising the independence of Finland: ‘One of the great European Powers can now speak of nationality and the consent of the governed without exposing itself to the scorn of thinking men.’ These congratulations came at a time when Sinn Féin had also unveiled plans for holding a referendum on the question of Irish independence, the vote to take the form of a petition to the Peace Conference to be held once the current war comes to an end.
Books of instructions were sent to all Sinn Féin clubs for the purpose of collecting the signatures of all persons over the age of 18 years in Ireland in support of the message: ‘We appeal to the Peace Congress to secure the establishment of Ireland as an independent state.’ Canvassers were charged with visiting every house in the country, and every person, whether a Sinn Féin supporter or not, will be asked to sign the appeal. According to Sinn Féin President Éamon de Valera, the intention is to ‘afford every Irishman, who wants his country free and untrammelled by the Imperialistic policy of Britain, the opportunity of saying so’.
Finland: The newly independent nation enacts a "Mosaic Confessors" law, granting Finnish Jews civil rights.
Russia: A decree issued by the Council of Peoples' Commissars of the Republic puts all Russian aircraft manufacturing companies under state control.
Britain: Minnie Pit disaster, a mining accident at Halmer End in the North Staffordshire Coalfield, kills 155 as the result of an explosion caused by firedamp.
Books of instructions were sent to all Sinn Féin clubs for the purpose of collecting the signatures of all persons over the age of 18 years in Ireland in support of the message: ‘We appeal to the Peace Congress to secure the establishment of Ireland as an independent state.’ Canvassers were charged with visiting every house in the country, and every person, whether a Sinn Féin supporter or not, will be asked to sign the appeal. According to Sinn Féin President Éamon de Valera, the intention is to ‘afford every Irishman, who wants his country free and untrammelled by the Imperialistic policy of Britain, the opportunity of saying so’.
Finland: The newly independent nation enacts a "Mosaic Confessors" law, granting Finnish Jews civil rights.
Russia: A decree issued by the Council of Peoples' Commissars of the Republic puts all Russian aircraft manufacturing companies under state control.
Britain: Minnie Pit disaster, a mining accident at Halmer End in the North Staffordshire Coalfield, kills 155 as the result of an explosion caused by firedamp.
Diarmuid Lynch, the Sinn Fein Food Director held a public meeting in Beresford Place, Dublin to protest against the export of Irish food to Britain.
In the US, John Devoy's newspaper ‘The Gaelic American’ and Ford’s ‘Irish World’ were barred from the US mails, but could still be sold from news stands. This barring seriously affected the ‘Gaelic American’ circulation. Diarmuid Lynch recalled that Devoy ‘thought it was for the Skeffington article.’
Diarmuid Lynch Friends of Irish Freedom manuscript notes. Lynch Family Archives – Folder 8 – 00006
In the US, John Devoy's newspaper ‘The Gaelic American’ and Ford’s ‘Irish World’ were barred from the US mails, but could still be sold from news stands. This barring seriously affected the ‘Gaelic American’ circulation. Diarmuid Lynch recalled that Devoy ‘thought it was for the Skeffington article.’
Diarmuid Lynch Friends of Irish Freedom manuscript notes. Lynch Family Archives – Folder 8 – 00006
Irish Convention:The northern nationalist representatives Bishop O’Donnell and Joseph Devlin had joined forces and informed Redmond, whose health had kept him in seclusion for ten days since his speech, of their opposition to his amendment in the absence of an advance agreement from Ulster to ‘come in’.
The Bishop of Raphoe, Dr O’Donnell declared to Redmond that: ‘A Parliament in Dublin, two months hence, without customs…will not bear examination. The principle is given away. If Ulster had come in, or had promised to come in, we could have given something away.’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.44
This effectively signalled the end of Redmond’s attempts to compromise for Home Rule.
Lord Birkenhead ( Sir F.E.Smith ), the prosecuting counsel and Attorney General of Britain in 1916 declared in New York and reported by the Boston Post, that nothing had given him greater delight than the execution of Casement and that he had threatened to resign from Cabinet unless Casement was hanged. In addition, he declared ‘..it would be very inconvenient if anything should happen just now to overturn the attempt to bring about a settlement. In a few months, whatever happens, it won't amount to a damn...’
Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Independence 1866-1922’. Devin-Adair. 1957. p.242
From another source, the same report carried by the Boston Post had Lord Birkenhead adding:
‘that the members of the Convention had been practically hired by Lloyd George to keep talking and talking for the consideration of one guinea a day, to cover the difficult period of America’s decision to enter the war’
Dorothy Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin. 1951. p.245
Not surprisingly, these un-diplomatic remarks were resented by the British Embassy in Washington and the Lord was re-called back to England at the end of January.
The Bishop of Raphoe, Dr O’Donnell declared to Redmond that: ‘A Parliament in Dublin, two months hence, without customs…will not bear examination. The principle is given away. If Ulster had come in, or had promised to come in, we could have given something away.’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.44
This effectively signalled the end of Redmond’s attempts to compromise for Home Rule.
Lord Birkenhead ( Sir F.E.Smith ), the prosecuting counsel and Attorney General of Britain in 1916 declared in New York and reported by the Boston Post, that nothing had given him greater delight than the execution of Casement and that he had threatened to resign from Cabinet unless Casement was hanged. In addition, he declared ‘..it would be very inconvenient if anything should happen just now to overturn the attempt to bring about a settlement. In a few months, whatever happens, it won't amount to a damn...’
Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Independence 1866-1922’. Devin-Adair. 1957. p.242
From another source, the same report carried by the Boston Post had Lord Birkenhead adding:
‘that the members of the Convention had been practically hired by Lloyd George to keep talking and talking for the consideration of one guinea a day, to cover the difficult period of America’s decision to enter the war’
Dorothy Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin. 1951. p.245
Not surprisingly, these un-diplomatic remarks were resented by the British Embassy in Washington and the Lord was re-called back to England at the end of January.
Achill Island: The 5,000 inhabitants of Achill Island, Co. Mayo, faced famine conditions owing to a shortage of flour. According to the Rev. Fr Martin Colleran, the people on Achill are chiefly dependent on flour. He has suggested that the Food Control authorities need to send a supply to be given directly to the people themselves or to small shopkeepers in the different villages for distribution.
"The people on the island, have the money to purchase flour, as many of them travel to England or Scotland each year for agricultural or munitions work. The issue is that there is no food to buy...Deprived of their usual supply of flour, the people have fallen back upon their stock of potatoes. However, owing to the poor quality of the soil and the fact that seaweed is largely used for manure, the potatoes grown on the island are very unsuitable for human consumption, except on a very minor scale."
Dr James Ryan, the Medical Dispensary Officer for Achill has already been called out to attend to children from a colic-like sickness which he expects to spread if the island’s potatoes remain the only form of food available. The dairy herd, too, are much inferior to those reared elsewhere and they produce comparatively small supplies of milk, even in summer. In winter, some families do not have enough milk to so much as ‘colour a drop of tea’. Artist Paul Henry has drawn attention to the plight of the islanders in a letter to the Freeman’s Journal. He warned of the prospect of famine and starvation should the situation not change.
France: Former Premier Caillaux was jailed for 'Treason' in calling for a negotiated peace with Germany.
"The people on the island, have the money to purchase flour, as many of them travel to England or Scotland each year for agricultural or munitions work. The issue is that there is no food to buy...Deprived of their usual supply of flour, the people have fallen back upon their stock of potatoes. However, owing to the poor quality of the soil and the fact that seaweed is largely used for manure, the potatoes grown on the island are very unsuitable for human consumption, except on a very minor scale."
Dr James Ryan, the Medical Dispensary Officer for Achill has already been called out to attend to children from a colic-like sickness which he expects to spread if the island’s potatoes remain the only form of food available. The dairy herd, too, are much inferior to those reared elsewhere and they produce comparatively small supplies of milk, even in summer. In winter, some families do not have enough milk to so much as ‘colour a drop of tea’. Artist Paul Henry has drawn attention to the plight of the islanders in a letter to the Freeman’s Journal. He warned of the prospect of famine and starvation should the situation not change.
France: Former Premier Caillaux was jailed for 'Treason' in calling for a negotiated peace with Germany.
Dublin: ‘Another operation of the Sinn Fein Food Control Committee (under Diarmuid Lynch), was the organisation of a census of supplies and of improved distribution. A market for potatoes with a rationing scheme was set up at Ennis and elsewhere.’
Dorothy Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin. 1951. p.242.
Irish Convention: Redmond, when he rose to make his address, rather than divide the nationalists, withdrew his proposal and resigned from the Convention. His last words to the astonished assembly were, ‘ . . . that some important Nationalist representatives are against this course – the Catholic bishops, Mr. Devlin – and others. I must face the situation – at which I am surprised; and I regret it. . . . Therefore I must avoid pressing my motion. . . . I feel that I can be of no further service to the Convention . ..’
Nationalists were now seen as the obstructers by which the Midleton Plan failed to win unanimity.
Austria: General strikes throughout the empire as workers strike for peace.
Britain: The keel of HMS Hermes is laid down in Tyneside, the first purpose-designed aircraft carrier to be built.
Washington: Secretary Lansing made public the secret code correspondence between Count von Bernstorf and the Berlin Foreign Office.
Egypt: Gamal Abdel Nasser born (1918-1970)
Dorothy Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin. 1951. p.242.
Irish Convention: Redmond, when he rose to make his address, rather than divide the nationalists, withdrew his proposal and resigned from the Convention. His last words to the astonished assembly were, ‘ . . . that some important Nationalist representatives are against this course – the Catholic bishops, Mr. Devlin – and others. I must face the situation – at which I am surprised; and I regret it. . . . Therefore I must avoid pressing my motion. . . . I feel that I can be of no further service to the Convention . ..’
Nationalists were now seen as the obstructers by which the Midleton Plan failed to win unanimity.
Austria: General strikes throughout the empire as workers strike for peace.
Britain: The keel of HMS Hermes is laid down in Tyneside, the first purpose-designed aircraft carrier to be built.
Washington: Secretary Lansing made public the secret code correspondence between Count von Bernstorf and the Berlin Foreign Office.
Egypt: Gamal Abdel Nasser born (1918-1970)
Westminster: Arthur Balfour stated that the British Government did not recognise the Russian administration as being the government of the Russian people, although it continued to conduct business in an unofficial manner through an agent acting on the direction of the Petrograd Embassy.
Washington: Wilson orders all industries except food to close for five days and then every Monday until March 25 to save coal.
Washington: Wilson orders all industries except food to close for five days and then every Monday until March 25 to save coal.
In the Irish Independent, the following letter from Diarmuid Lynch in capacity as Sinn Fein Food Director was published:
“ Sir,
Today’s Freemans Journal repeats the statement published last week that “following consultation between the Irish Department of Agriculture and the Food Control authorities, an Order prohibiting the export of oats from Ireland will be issued very shortly”. Yes, the “Prohibition Order” will be issued when the bulk of our oats has been shipped out of Ireland. At the present moment, 100,000 barrels of oats lying at the southern ports have been commandeered by the ‘military’. In addition to this, the Department of Agriculture has a special force of officials scouring the South of Ireland under the direction of a Scotch inspector and an English inspector, to secure 300,000 barrels of oats for the English Wheat Commission.
The officials of the Department do not let it be known that these oats are for export. Oh No! They are purchasing it ‘for seed’.
That’s the game this ‘Irish’ Department is playing, and when the oats have gone they will have more ‘prohibition orders’. When will our Irish people wake up? When will our public bodies and men of wealth take definite steps to save for our own people the food raised in Ireland?
Diarmuid Lynch
Sinn Fein Food Director
This letter was reprinted a month later in the Gaelic American, February 23, 1918 under the heading “English Food Officials Are At Their Old Game”.
Lynch Family Archives.
Coincidentally, on the same day as Lynch's letter was published, the Irish Independent also carried news of food shortages in Ireland:
‘In Dublin it has been possible to obtain a limited supply of milk up to this, but nothing like what is really required for children, infants, sick persons and mothers.
Some of the Co-Operative Socieities have set a good example for the rest of the country by killing and curing their members pigs for local consumption. Others are considering the collections and preservations of eggs during the plentiful season, and …the industry of vegetable and fruit frying is under consideration.
In spite of all the efforts that are being made it is almost certain that the country will be faced for many months with a very serious shortage of food…the poor are already suffering in the case of meat. The prices of prime cuts are still within the reach of the well-to-do, but the prices of the coarser parts of the animal have gone up out of all proportion to those charged for the prime parts, and so much so that the poor are now practically unable to purchase meat except in small quantities.’
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 4/15
‘In Dublin it has been possible to obtain a limited supply of milk up to this, but nothing like what is really required for children, infants, sick persons and mothers.
Some of the Co-Operative Socieities have set a good example for the rest of the country by killing and curing their members pigs for local consumption. Others are considering the collections and preservations of eggs during the plentiful season, and …the industry of vegetable and fruit frying is under consideration.
In spite of all the efforts that are being made it is almost certain that the country will be faced for many months with a very serious shortage of food…the poor are already suffering in the case of meat. The prices of prime cuts are still within the reach of the well-to-do, but the prices of the coarser parts of the animal have gone up out of all proportion to those charged for the prime parts, and so much so that the poor are now practically unable to purchase meat except in small quantities.’
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 4/15
Dublin: De Valera made a speech in the Mansion House, reported the following day in the Freeman’s Journal:
‘..we want Ireland to be set up as an independent state with no closer bonds between us and England that there will be between it and America, or between it and Germany or between it and France. That ought to be clear enough for anybody. We say that if those who go about mouthing about self-determination do not take that interpretation of it, they are hypocrites, and we tell President Wilson, in view of the statements he has made, if he does not take that view of it, he is as big a hypocrite as Lloyd George’
Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Independence 1866-1922’. Devin-Adair. 1957. p.241
Count Plunkett, Seán T. O'Kelly and others protest at the forcible feeding of Sinn Féin prisoners in Mountjoy Prison.
Cork: Cork Corporation held a public meeting on the food supply situation in the city convened by the Lord Mayor, Councillor Thomas Butterfield. Dr Cohalan, the RC Bishop of Cork addressed the meeting calling on the corporation to form a committee of food producers to report on the food supply in the city and county and retention of foodstuffs for the local population. Mayor Butterfield commented that the people were 'living in very serious times...and to retain the produce that was necessary for the people of the country.' Also attending the meeting was Tomas McCurtain who revealed that necessary foodstuffs required for the Irish population was being exported at 'an alarming rate...and if some definite action is not taken and an effort made to hold supplies of food for the people, they would drift into a very serious state of affairs'
‘..we want Ireland to be set up as an independent state with no closer bonds between us and England that there will be between it and America, or between it and Germany or between it and France. That ought to be clear enough for anybody. We say that if those who go about mouthing about self-determination do not take that interpretation of it, they are hypocrites, and we tell President Wilson, in view of the statements he has made, if he does not take that view of it, he is as big a hypocrite as Lloyd George’
Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Independence 1866-1922’. Devin-Adair. 1957. p.241
Count Plunkett, Seán T. O'Kelly and others protest at the forcible feeding of Sinn Féin prisoners in Mountjoy Prison.
Cork: Cork Corporation held a public meeting on the food supply situation in the city convened by the Lord Mayor, Councillor Thomas Butterfield. Dr Cohalan, the RC Bishop of Cork addressed the meeting calling on the corporation to form a committee of food producers to report on the food supply in the city and county and retention of foodstuffs for the local population. Mayor Butterfield commented that the people were 'living in very serious times...and to retain the produce that was necessary for the people of the country.' Also attending the meeting was Tomas McCurtain who revealed that necessary foodstuffs required for the Irish population was being exported at 'an alarming rate...and if some definite action is not taken and an effort made to hold supplies of food for the people, they would drift into a very serious state of affairs'
Petrograd: Russian Constituent Assembly proclaims Russian Democratic Federative Republic, but is dissolved by Bolshevik government on same day.
Ulster: Preparations for the South Armagh by-election were underway. MacCurtain was asked to assist, and he moved north from Cork taking command of the Newry Irish Volunteers and organising four companies in the area.
Sir Edward Carson resigned his place in the British War Cabinet. In a letter to the Prime Minister David Lloyd George, the Irish Unionist leader set out the reasons for his decision. Carson told the PM that ‘whatever the result of the Convention may be, its proceedings may lead to a situation demanding a decision by the Government on grave matters of policy in Ireland’.
‘After anxious consideration I feel certain that it will be of advantage to the War Cabinet to discuss this policy without my presence, having regard to the very prominent part which I have taken in the past in relation to the Home Rule controversy, and to the pledges by which I am bound to my friends in Ulster. I also desire to be entirely unfettered myself in forming a judgement as to the new situation which may arise.’
In accepting Carson’s resignation, the Prime Minister thanked him for his service and ‘unswerving loyalty’ while expressing regret and understanding at the decision he has taken. Lloyd George’s letter, which was published in full in most newspapers, acknowledged the ‘special difficulties’ faced by Mr Carson and accepts that ‘in the present circumstances, there is wisdom in the course you have taken’. Carson’s resignation gave rise to a flurry of press speculation over what it meant for the prospects of an Irish settlement: for instance, the Daily Telegraph pointed out that the terms of his announcement suggested that there are still questions around which no agreement had yet been reached at the Convention.
Irish Convention: As Carson left the Cabinet over a vague offer by the government to assist the Convention to ‘finally reach a basis of agreement which would enable a new Irish Constitution to come into operation with the consent of all parties’. Carson in reality was concerned that a settlement would be imposed on Ulster and that Lloyd George was doing nothing to allay such fears and also over differences about the conduct of the war. Lloyd George in a letter that day to Plunkett, expressed his grave concern at the lack of progress towards reaching an agreed settlement, and extended an invitation for a representation of the differing groups to confer with the Cabinet, to enable a new Irish Constitution to come into operation with the consent of all parties.
Brest-Litovsk: Germany and Ukraine reached an agreement that would bring the war between them to an end. The conclusion of the negotiations between the Central Powers and the Ukrainian People’s Republic promised peace, withdrawal of troops and the resumption of economic and diplomatic relations. The German communique concluded with a message of hope: ‘For the first time in this world-shaking war the realisation of the principles for the re-establishment of peace has been successfully accomplished.’
Sir Edward Carson resigned his place in the British War Cabinet. In a letter to the Prime Minister David Lloyd George, the Irish Unionist leader set out the reasons for his decision. Carson told the PM that ‘whatever the result of the Convention may be, its proceedings may lead to a situation demanding a decision by the Government on grave matters of policy in Ireland’.
‘After anxious consideration I feel certain that it will be of advantage to the War Cabinet to discuss this policy without my presence, having regard to the very prominent part which I have taken in the past in relation to the Home Rule controversy, and to the pledges by which I am bound to my friends in Ulster. I also desire to be entirely unfettered myself in forming a judgement as to the new situation which may arise.’
In accepting Carson’s resignation, the Prime Minister thanked him for his service and ‘unswerving loyalty’ while expressing regret and understanding at the decision he has taken. Lloyd George’s letter, which was published in full in most newspapers, acknowledged the ‘special difficulties’ faced by Mr Carson and accepts that ‘in the present circumstances, there is wisdom in the course you have taken’. Carson’s resignation gave rise to a flurry of press speculation over what it meant for the prospects of an Irish settlement: for instance, the Daily Telegraph pointed out that the terms of his announcement suggested that there are still questions around which no agreement had yet been reached at the Convention.
Irish Convention: As Carson left the Cabinet over a vague offer by the government to assist the Convention to ‘finally reach a basis of agreement which would enable a new Irish Constitution to come into operation with the consent of all parties’. Carson in reality was concerned that a settlement would be imposed on Ulster and that Lloyd George was doing nothing to allay such fears and also over differences about the conduct of the war. Lloyd George in a letter that day to Plunkett, expressed his grave concern at the lack of progress towards reaching an agreed settlement, and extended an invitation for a representation of the differing groups to confer with the Cabinet, to enable a new Irish Constitution to come into operation with the consent of all parties.
Brest-Litovsk: Germany and Ukraine reached an agreement that would bring the war between them to an end. The conclusion of the negotiations between the Central Powers and the Ukrainian People’s Republic promised peace, withdrawal of troops and the resumption of economic and diplomatic relations. The German communique concluded with a message of hope: ‘For the first time in this world-shaking war the realisation of the principles for the re-establishment of peace has been successfully accomplished.’
London: Government orders restaurants & cafes not to serve meat on two days each week. The Public Meals Order in Ireland prohibited the use of meat with meals on Wednesdays and Fridays - which extended to all hotels, restaurants and clubs. However inquiries by the Irish Times to the Irish Food Control Committee indicated a second part of the order, forbidding the use of meat at public meals on any day between 5am and 10.30am, will not be enforced until the first week of February.
American Ambassador Page reported that British newspaper correspondents in Washington were giving the impression that President Wilson had favoured a plan whereby Congress would ‘vote a large sum of money to Ireland to help the Home Rule cause.’
Ukraine: The Ukrainian People's Republic declares independence from Bolshevik Russia.
American Ambassador Page reported that British newspaper correspondents in Washington were giving the impression that President Wilson had favoured a plan whereby Congress would ‘vote a large sum of money to Ireland to help the Home Rule cause.’
Ukraine: The Ukrainian People's Republic declares independence from Bolshevik Russia.
23
Dublin: A production of Hanrahan’s Oath, a comedy written by Lady Gregory, opened to mixed reviews at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. Describing it as an ‘excellent little comedy’, the Irish Times has lauded the work for the ‘ingenuity’ and for the ‘neatness with which its development is worked out’. The Hanrahan of the title is a silver-tongued gentleman who is tricked into taking an oath to stay silent for a year and a day by way of penance for allegedly betraying a friend.
The review praised Fred O’Donovan for his role as Hanrahan, the ‘erstwhile silent saint and sinner, and the spell was put upon him with great skill and cunning by Maureen Delaney in the part of Mary Gillis’. Not everybody took so benign a view of the play. One individual took it upon himself to ‘hiss’ during the performance, his assessment sharing less with that of the Irish Timesthan the reviewer ‘Jacques’ in the Irish Independent. According to Jacques, a veteran of Abbey Theatre performances, he had never before heard from its stage ‘such blather and balderdash as actors and actresses had to utter’ in the opening night’s production of Hanrahan’s Oath. Officially described as a comedy in one act, Jacques was at a loss to know what Lady Gregory was thinking in writing it. ‘It makes a mockery of things held sacred among the peasantry, and wins ignorant laughter by methods of buffoonery. It may have pleased Lady Gregory to write Hanrahan’s Oath but really, before producing it, she might consider the feelings of her Abbey patrons.’
Charlie Kerins, Chief of Staff of the IRA, convicted of murder of Garda Síochána officer born. (hanged 1944).
Finland: The Finnish Civil War begins with the Battle of Kämärä.
Dublin: A production of Hanrahan’s Oath, a comedy written by Lady Gregory, opened to mixed reviews at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. Describing it as an ‘excellent little comedy’, the Irish Times has lauded the work for the ‘ingenuity’ and for the ‘neatness with which its development is worked out’. The Hanrahan of the title is a silver-tongued gentleman who is tricked into taking an oath to stay silent for a year and a day by way of penance for allegedly betraying a friend.
The review praised Fred O’Donovan for his role as Hanrahan, the ‘erstwhile silent saint and sinner, and the spell was put upon him with great skill and cunning by Maureen Delaney in the part of Mary Gillis’. Not everybody took so benign a view of the play. One individual took it upon himself to ‘hiss’ during the performance, his assessment sharing less with that of the Irish Timesthan the reviewer ‘Jacques’ in the Irish Independent. According to Jacques, a veteran of Abbey Theatre performances, he had never before heard from its stage ‘such blather and balderdash as actors and actresses had to utter’ in the opening night’s production of Hanrahan’s Oath. Officially described as a comedy in one act, Jacques was at a loss to know what Lady Gregory was thinking in writing it. ‘It makes a mockery of things held sacred among the peasantry, and wins ignorant laughter by methods of buffoonery. It may have pleased Lady Gregory to write Hanrahan’s Oath but really, before producing it, she might consider the feelings of her Abbey patrons.’
Charlie Kerins, Chief of Staff of the IRA, convicted of murder of Garda Síochána officer born. (hanged 1944).
Finland: The Finnish Civil War begins with the Battle of Kämärä.
Flight Lieutenant Robert Gregory, the son and only child of Lady Gregory is killed when his Sopwith Camel fighter crashed in Italy.
The event inspired Wiliam Butler Yeats to write his poem "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" a few days after the event and first published in the Macmillan edition of The Wild Swans at Coole in 1919. The poem is a soliloquy given by an aviator in the First World War in which the narrator describes the circumstances surrounding his imminent death. The poem is a work that discusses the role of Irish soldiers fighting for the United Kingdom during a time when they were trying to establish independence for Ireland. Wishing to show restraint from publishing political poems during the height of the war, Yeats withheld publication of the poem until after the conflict had ended.
I know that I shall meet my fate,
Somewhere among the clouds above;
Those that I fight I do not hate,
Those that I guard I do not love;
My country is Kiltartan Cross,
My countrymen Kiltartan's poor,
No likely end could bring them loss
Or leave them happier than before.
Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public men, nor cheering crowds,
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind
In balance with this life, this death.
The event inspired Wiliam Butler Yeats to write his poem "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" a few days after the event and first published in the Macmillan edition of The Wild Swans at Coole in 1919. The poem is a soliloquy given by an aviator in the First World War in which the narrator describes the circumstances surrounding his imminent death. The poem is a work that discusses the role of Irish soldiers fighting for the United Kingdom during a time when they were trying to establish independence for Ireland. Wishing to show restraint from publishing political poems during the height of the war, Yeats withheld publication of the poem until after the conflict had ended.
I know that I shall meet my fate,
Somewhere among the clouds above;
Those that I fight I do not hate,
Those that I guard I do not love;
My country is Kiltartan Cross,
My countrymen Kiltartan's poor,
No likely end could bring them loss
Or leave them happier than before.
Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public men, nor cheering crowds,
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind
In balance with this life, this death.
24
Washington: Wilson formally denied reports that he sought to influence the British government regarding the Irish question but also declined the requests of partisan politicians in the United States to declare his preference for the form self-government for Ireland might take.
Washington: Wilson formally denied reports that he sought to influence the British government regarding the Irish question but also declined the requests of partisan politicians in the United States to declare his preference for the form self-government for Ireland might take.
Missing and Overdue Vessels:
Eternal Father, strong to save,Whose arm hath bound the restless wave, Who bidd’st the mighty ocean depths own appointed limits keep; Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee, For those in peril on the sea! —“Eternal Father” (the Navy Hymn) Almost daily, newspapers published lists of Missing and Overdue vessels. With unrestricted German submarine warfare, some of the vessels listed may have been sunk days before possibly with all hands. Structural issues, naval collisions, rough seas and poor navigation also accounted for some of the losses in an era when ship to shore communications were poor to non-existent. A quick check on records a century later shows the fate of these vessels:
The Emlydene: sunk by U-Boat 12 December 1917. All hands lost (14) The Braeside: sunk by U-71. 6 December 1917. All hands lost. Douglas Haig Schooner: sunk by U-Boat. 1 Feb 1917. All hands lost Formby: sunk by U-62 15 December 1917. All hands lost (39) Coningbeg: sunk by U62 17 December 1917. All hands lost (44) Clementine: fate unknown. Not listed on any surviving U-Boat logs. |
This denial, reported by the New York correspondent of the Daily Telegraph (opposite) came as rumours circulated that Washington was worried by recent suggestions that the Irish Convention was in peril. The New York-based Frank Dilnot, writing for the Daily Chronicle, referred to both the ‘great friendliness to Britain in America since the war', and persistence of the great unease around Britain’s relationship to Ireland, an unease fuelled by the large Irish-American immigrant community who, he says, have ‘retained the prejudices of their grandfathers in a remarkable degree; indeed, they have remained in ignorance of the new Ireland, and they have impregnated other hundreds of thousands with their feelings’.
However, the Freeman’s Journal argued that any display of American concern was rooted less in sentimentality than self-interest. America was at war and yet ‘never before has Irish-America been so determined to see justice done to the homeland’. Congressional elections were scheduled to be held later in 1918 at a time when it was possible that on polling day, over 400,000 Irish-American soldiers would be in France and without a vote. ‘They are going to save France, but they mean also to liberate Ireland’, the Freeman’s Journal editorialised, adding that the Irish question had now become a ‘domestic question’ for America. Limerick
Alphonsus 'Phons' O'Mara (1887-1958) was elected as Limerick City Mayor as gradually many town and county councils saw successful bids by the increasingly powerful Sinn Fein party. Shortly after his election, Phons stripped Windham Wyndham-Quin, 4th Earl of Dunraven and Mount-Earl of the freedom of the City because of Dunraven's support for conscription. In 1919 he helped negotiate the end of the Limerick Soviet. Child adoption had no legal status in Britain (including under the separate legal system of Scotland) until 1926, when the first Act was passed which regulated this in England and Wales. Until then, child adoption was an informal and generally secretive procedure which gave the adoptive parents no rights whatsoever.
With such adverts as this, the voluntary sector began to deal with the increased public interest in, concerns and demand for child adoption during and after the First World War. Three philanthropic organisations: The National Child Adoption Association (NCAA), the National Adoption Society (NAS); and the National Council for the Unmarried Mother and her Child (NCUMC) were created between 1917 and 1918, each concerned that adopted children should only be taken by respectable people who were committed to providing a stable home and that the Government apply strict controls on the practice of informal adoptions and the widespread practice of Baby Farms.
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25
London: Meatless days were at times, rigidly enforced. The Daily Telegraph in a feature article comments:
London: Meatless days were at times, rigidly enforced. The Daily Telegraph in a feature article comments:
26
Washington: The State Department had advised their Ambassador to the United Kingdom that there was no plan either formulated or active where funding would be made available to help the Home Rule cause. In a return cable. Ambassador Page had advised that Sir Horace Plunkett had confidentially informed him that the biggest threat to the success of the Irish Convention lay in a ‘possible Sinn Fein effort to force a declaration in favour of secession from Great Britain and the setting up of an independent Republic...there is a general feeling in political circles that if the Convention fails, a quick solution to the problem must be made in some other way’
Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Independence 1866-1922’. Devin-Adair. 1957. p.242
Roumanian leader Nicolae Ceausescu born. (1918-1989)
27
Ulster: South Armagh became the next Parliamentary by-election contested by Sinn Fein.
The South Armagh seat, vacated by the death of the Irish Parliamentary Party MP, Charles O’Neill was a constituency with an electorate of just over 6,000 divided into six polling districts: Clady Milltown (921), Crossmaglen (1,028), Ballybet (1,900), Forkhill (1,261), Newtownhamilton (883) and Poyntspass (466). The Irish Parliamentary Party has unanimously selected Patrick Donnelly as its candidate. Donnelly a Newry-based solicitor hoped to put a stop to the recent electoral gallop of the Sinn Féin party. He told reporters that South Armagh has never ‘gone wrong’ before. He added that if they he was returned it would deliver a crushing blow to Sinn Féin that would be heard the length and breadth of Ireland in six months.
Donnelly’s chief opponent was Dr Patrick McCartan, who was described by one follower at a campaign meeting in Cloughbogue as the ‘the man known all over the world, the first Ambassador of Ireland to America, and who has faced every sort of danger in order to bring the condition of Ireland before the nations of the world’. A third candidate, the Unionist Thomas W. Richardson was also set to contest the by-election, but, in a constituency like South Armagh, it became essentially a competition between the nationalist (IPP) and republican (SF) candidates.
The ferocity of the competition between the two was reflected in the intensity of the electioneering from both sides. Mr Donnelly and his supporters have been using cars to cover the constituency and campaign in all its polling districts. The campaign for Dr McCartan had relied on the support of those from outside the constituency and they targeted their efforts at Crossmaglen, where, on this date they held a large meeting that resounded to the din of drums, pipes and the singing of the ‘Soldier’s Song’. The meeting was addressed by Mr Seán Milroy.
Elsewhere in the constituency, the Sinn Féin President Éamon de Valera travelled to Silverbridge and Countess Markievicz to Lislea, though they were not met by either large or enthusiastic crowds.
The Freeman’s Journal has questioned whether the tactics deployed in previous by-elections by Sinn Féin would prove quite as effective in South Armagh. ‘The sturdy northern voter is not easily stampeded’, a special representative from the newspaper claimed. Another challenge for Sinn Féin was the relatively low profile of Dr McCartan in the constituency. His nationalist opponents were keen to stress that he was not an Armagh man – he hailed from Tyrone – and was not well acquainted with the county. The decision would ultimately fall to the electors of South Armagh, the polling day being set for 1 February
De Valera speaking in South Armagh stated that the Unionists were as ‘a rock in the road…they must make up their minds not to be peddling with this rock. They must if necessary blast it out of their path.’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.44
28
Russia: Lenin consolidated the Bolshevik grip on power and creates the Red Army and Security Police, the Cheka.
London: A night of unusually heavy German bombing in London and south-east England with the new Riesenflugzeug aircraft.
29
Irish Sea: 12 lives lost at sea after a German torpedo sunk the SS Cork, a vessel owned by the Dublin Steam Packet Company. Two lifeboats, containing 30 survivors, were launched, located and picked up a couple of hours later by a passing steamer and, after being transferred to another ship, were brought to the nearest port. Questions about the safety of cross-channel vessels trading between Ireland and Great Britain have been raised in the House of Commons. The Committee of the Dublin Submarine Victims’ Fund passed a resolution urging the Government to do ‘everything possible in the form of convoy and patrols for ship-trading in Irish waters, with a view of preventing further loss of valuable lives, ships, and cargoes’
30
Westminster: House of Commons rejects the Lord's amendments to the Representation of the People Bill providing for proportional representation.
London: Over a number of weeks during January 1918, amongst the personal adverts in the Daily Telegraph Newspaper....
Washington: The State Department had advised their Ambassador to the United Kingdom that there was no plan either formulated or active where funding would be made available to help the Home Rule cause. In a return cable. Ambassador Page had advised that Sir Horace Plunkett had confidentially informed him that the biggest threat to the success of the Irish Convention lay in a ‘possible Sinn Fein effort to force a declaration in favour of secession from Great Britain and the setting up of an independent Republic...there is a general feeling in political circles that if the Convention fails, a quick solution to the problem must be made in some other way’
Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Independence 1866-1922’. Devin-Adair. 1957. p.242
Roumanian leader Nicolae Ceausescu born. (1918-1989)
27
Ulster: South Armagh became the next Parliamentary by-election contested by Sinn Fein.
The South Armagh seat, vacated by the death of the Irish Parliamentary Party MP, Charles O’Neill was a constituency with an electorate of just over 6,000 divided into six polling districts: Clady Milltown (921), Crossmaglen (1,028), Ballybet (1,900), Forkhill (1,261), Newtownhamilton (883) and Poyntspass (466). The Irish Parliamentary Party has unanimously selected Patrick Donnelly as its candidate. Donnelly a Newry-based solicitor hoped to put a stop to the recent electoral gallop of the Sinn Féin party. He told reporters that South Armagh has never ‘gone wrong’ before. He added that if they he was returned it would deliver a crushing blow to Sinn Féin that would be heard the length and breadth of Ireland in six months.
Donnelly’s chief opponent was Dr Patrick McCartan, who was described by one follower at a campaign meeting in Cloughbogue as the ‘the man known all over the world, the first Ambassador of Ireland to America, and who has faced every sort of danger in order to bring the condition of Ireland before the nations of the world’. A third candidate, the Unionist Thomas W. Richardson was also set to contest the by-election, but, in a constituency like South Armagh, it became essentially a competition between the nationalist (IPP) and republican (SF) candidates.
The ferocity of the competition between the two was reflected in the intensity of the electioneering from both sides. Mr Donnelly and his supporters have been using cars to cover the constituency and campaign in all its polling districts. The campaign for Dr McCartan had relied on the support of those from outside the constituency and they targeted their efforts at Crossmaglen, where, on this date they held a large meeting that resounded to the din of drums, pipes and the singing of the ‘Soldier’s Song’. The meeting was addressed by Mr Seán Milroy.
Elsewhere in the constituency, the Sinn Féin President Éamon de Valera travelled to Silverbridge and Countess Markievicz to Lislea, though they were not met by either large or enthusiastic crowds.
The Freeman’s Journal has questioned whether the tactics deployed in previous by-elections by Sinn Féin would prove quite as effective in South Armagh. ‘The sturdy northern voter is not easily stampeded’, a special representative from the newspaper claimed. Another challenge for Sinn Féin was the relatively low profile of Dr McCartan in the constituency. His nationalist opponents were keen to stress that he was not an Armagh man – he hailed from Tyrone – and was not well acquainted with the county. The decision would ultimately fall to the electors of South Armagh, the polling day being set for 1 February
De Valera speaking in South Armagh stated that the Unionists were as ‘a rock in the road…they must make up their minds not to be peddling with this rock. They must if necessary blast it out of their path.’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.44
28
Russia: Lenin consolidated the Bolshevik grip on power and creates the Red Army and Security Police, the Cheka.
London: A night of unusually heavy German bombing in London and south-east England with the new Riesenflugzeug aircraft.
29
Irish Sea: 12 lives lost at sea after a German torpedo sunk the SS Cork, a vessel owned by the Dublin Steam Packet Company. Two lifeboats, containing 30 survivors, were launched, located and picked up a couple of hours later by a passing steamer and, after being transferred to another ship, were brought to the nearest port. Questions about the safety of cross-channel vessels trading between Ireland and Great Britain have been raised in the House of Commons. The Committee of the Dublin Submarine Victims’ Fund passed a resolution urging the Government to do ‘everything possible in the form of convoy and patrols for ship-trading in Irish waters, with a view of preventing further loss of valuable lives, ships, and cargoes’
30
Westminster: House of Commons rejects the Lord's amendments to the Representation of the People Bill providing for proportional representation.
London: Over a number of weeks during January 1918, amongst the personal adverts in the Daily Telegraph Newspaper....
... appeared this request for information on a missing relative, 2nd Lieutenant, the Hon. Piers St. Aubyn of the 2nd Battalion King's Royal Rifle Corps, reported wounded and missing at Gheluvelt, Belgium on October 30th, 1914:
This was just one of many examples of many adverts placed by concerned and desperate relatives attempting to discover the whereabouts of a missing father, husband, son or nephew from the battlefields of Belgium and France. The Countess Amherst was the aunt of Piers St. Aubyn.
(Hon. Piers Stewart St. Aubyn was born on 11 April 1871 He was the son of John St. Aubyn, 1st Baron St. Levan of St. Michaels Mount and Lady Elizabeth Clementina Townshend.1 He died on 31 October 1914 at age 43, from wounds received in action. He fought in the Boer War in 1900 and gained the rank of 2nd Lieutenant in the King's Royal Rifle Corps. He held the office of Justice of the Peace (J.P.) for Cornwall.)
(Hon. Piers Stewart St. Aubyn was born on 11 April 1871 He was the son of John St. Aubyn, 1st Baron St. Levan of St. Michaels Mount and Lady Elizabeth Clementina Townshend.1 He died on 31 October 1914 at age 43, from wounds received in action. He fought in the Boer War in 1900 and gained the rank of 2nd Lieutenant in the King's Royal Rifle Corps. He held the office of Justice of the Peace (J.P.) for Cornwall.)
31
Berlin: Martial law declared following a series of strikes led by socialist groups.
Scotland: Battle of May Island : in a confused series of collisions as a large Royal Navy fleet steams down the Firth of Forth this evening, submarines HMS K4 and HMS K17 are sunk, three other submarines and a light cruiser are damaged and 104 sailors die.
By the end of January, the Sinn Fein policy of clearing lands in the west, dividing into conacre and leasing the land for tillage to local tenants was successful. Arrests were frequent and numerous, but as frequently the men ‘marching to break the soil, with spades and loys...or bringing horses and ploughs, were escorted by crowds carrying banners and with fife and drum bands...the crowds were so large that police considered it inadvisable to interfere’
Dorothy Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin. 1951. p.241
Food supplies in large areas of Sligo, Roscommon, Leitrim, Clare, Mayo. Galway. Limerick, Offaly, Westmeath and Leix were reported to be particularly ‘grave’.
Sinn Fein clubs were said to be 1,080 with a membership of 69,000. New members in January alone accounted for 3,000.
In Dublin, a meeting demanded the return of the art works temporaily on loan to the National Gallery in London as specified in a codicil in Sir Hugh Lane’s Will. The projected gallery was to be located in Parnell Square.
Michael Lynch continued as Officer in Charge for Tracton irish Volunteers from 1917 to early 1918.
Early in 1918, Irish Volunteer HQ decided to form a separate battalion of the four companies in the area Monkstown, Rochestown, Passage West and Ringaskiddy.
Michael Lynch became Battalion 0/C with Henry O'Mahony as vice-0/C. "This continued through to the summer of 1918 when agrarian and other difficulties resulted in Michael being dismissed from his position as Battalion O/C by Terence McSwiney" according to O'Mahoney.
Michael was later jailed in Mountjoy for the agrian disturbances.
Below: South Armagh By-Election posters
Berlin: Martial law declared following a series of strikes led by socialist groups.
Scotland: Battle of May Island : in a confused series of collisions as a large Royal Navy fleet steams down the Firth of Forth this evening, submarines HMS K4 and HMS K17 are sunk, three other submarines and a light cruiser are damaged and 104 sailors die.
By the end of January, the Sinn Fein policy of clearing lands in the west, dividing into conacre and leasing the land for tillage to local tenants was successful. Arrests were frequent and numerous, but as frequently the men ‘marching to break the soil, with spades and loys...or bringing horses and ploughs, were escorted by crowds carrying banners and with fife and drum bands...the crowds were so large that police considered it inadvisable to interfere’
Dorothy Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin. 1951. p.241
Food supplies in large areas of Sligo, Roscommon, Leitrim, Clare, Mayo. Galway. Limerick, Offaly, Westmeath and Leix were reported to be particularly ‘grave’.
Sinn Fein clubs were said to be 1,080 with a membership of 69,000. New members in January alone accounted for 3,000.
In Dublin, a meeting demanded the return of the art works temporaily on loan to the National Gallery in London as specified in a codicil in Sir Hugh Lane’s Will. The projected gallery was to be located in Parnell Square.
Michael Lynch continued as Officer in Charge for Tracton irish Volunteers from 1917 to early 1918.
Early in 1918, Irish Volunteer HQ decided to form a separate battalion of the four companies in the area Monkstown, Rochestown, Passage West and Ringaskiddy.
Michael Lynch became Battalion 0/C with Henry O'Mahony as vice-0/C. "This continued through to the summer of 1918 when agrarian and other difficulties resulted in Michael being dismissed from his position as Battalion O/C by Terence McSwiney" according to O'Mahoney.
Michael was later jailed in Mountjoy for the agrian disturbances.
Below: South Armagh By-Election posters
Dublin in February 1918
Historian Damian Corless observed: "There was great poverty. In recent decades Dublin's rich had abandoned the city centre for suburbs like Ranelagh and Drumcondra, and by 1918, their formerly fine homes had fallen into dereliction, though not disuse. While much of rural Ireland was dirt poor and hungry, many Dubliners lived in a massed squalor which condemned them to lives that were nasty, brutish and short. The capital's blackspots were the poorest in the British Isles, with a death rate 33pc higher than in the worst slums of London. The inner city was crowded with livestock kept in filthy dairy yards and laneways, and the sound of animals being slaughtered rang from countless backstreet abattoirs. Offal, blood and excrement splattered the pavements of the city centre.
Disease plagued the slum tenements where one-in-three families lived in one room. Henrietta Street, just off O'Connell Street, was now a by-word for wretchedness, with some 800 people squashed into 15 townhouses originally built to house just one well-heeled family each. Out back there was a piggery. Dublin Corporation's efforts to improve conditions were lamentable, not least because many Corpo members doubled as slum landlords collecting rents from the crumbling tenements. And as disease raged, and infant mortality in particular soared, the hospital system was falling apart as huge war inflation crippled fixed budgets. In the bars and kitchens, adult chat revolved around the news from the front, the chances of a flu epidemic and the prospects of army conscription ever happening.
The Irish enjoyed more meat in their diet than their neighbours across the sea, but Catholic dietary norms were interrupted in the weeks before Easter by the restrictions of Lent, which began on February 13. Bakeries, sweetshops, butchers and restaurants took their seasonal hit, as did the pubs as menfolk swore off for the duration. However, for the fish trade, Lent was always a festive time. Tinned in England, Skippers were heavily advertised as 'The Best Fish For Lent'. The advert continued: "Skippers enable you to observe the Lenten Fast without sacrificing nourishment which is really necessary for health. Skippers themselves are rich in just those elements which build up the system and enable it to bear the extra strain and extra work imposed by the War. Ask gently but FIRMLY for Skippers."
For most working families, urban and rural, the main meal of the day was dinner at lunchtime, with stews made from leftovers a popular fare. For eating out, Restaurant Jammet at Dublin's Burlington Hotel was beyond the means of most, but many pubs did affordable soups, grills and sandwiches. At the very bottom of the food pyramid, the board of the Roscrea Workhouse in Tipperary tendered for a supply of white bread which "must be equal to and will be compared with the Best White Bread made in the town of Roscrea". It said something about Ireland's subservient place in the United Kingdom that far greater proportion of Irish adults and children were incarcerated in workhouses, reformatories and mental hospitals than elsewhere in the United Kingdom."
Historian Damian Corless observed: "There was great poverty. In recent decades Dublin's rich had abandoned the city centre for suburbs like Ranelagh and Drumcondra, and by 1918, their formerly fine homes had fallen into dereliction, though not disuse. While much of rural Ireland was dirt poor and hungry, many Dubliners lived in a massed squalor which condemned them to lives that were nasty, brutish and short. The capital's blackspots were the poorest in the British Isles, with a death rate 33pc higher than in the worst slums of London. The inner city was crowded with livestock kept in filthy dairy yards and laneways, and the sound of animals being slaughtered rang from countless backstreet abattoirs. Offal, blood and excrement splattered the pavements of the city centre.
Disease plagued the slum tenements where one-in-three families lived in one room. Henrietta Street, just off O'Connell Street, was now a by-word for wretchedness, with some 800 people squashed into 15 townhouses originally built to house just one well-heeled family each. Out back there was a piggery. Dublin Corporation's efforts to improve conditions were lamentable, not least because many Corpo members doubled as slum landlords collecting rents from the crumbling tenements. And as disease raged, and infant mortality in particular soared, the hospital system was falling apart as huge war inflation crippled fixed budgets. In the bars and kitchens, adult chat revolved around the news from the front, the chances of a flu epidemic and the prospects of army conscription ever happening.
The Irish enjoyed more meat in their diet than their neighbours across the sea, but Catholic dietary norms were interrupted in the weeks before Easter by the restrictions of Lent, which began on February 13. Bakeries, sweetshops, butchers and restaurants took their seasonal hit, as did the pubs as menfolk swore off for the duration. However, for the fish trade, Lent was always a festive time. Tinned in England, Skippers were heavily advertised as 'The Best Fish For Lent'. The advert continued: "Skippers enable you to observe the Lenten Fast without sacrificing nourishment which is really necessary for health. Skippers themselves are rich in just those elements which build up the system and enable it to bear the extra strain and extra work imposed by the War. Ask gently but FIRMLY for Skippers."
For most working families, urban and rural, the main meal of the day was dinner at lunchtime, with stews made from leftovers a popular fare. For eating out, Restaurant Jammet at Dublin's Burlington Hotel was beyond the means of most, but many pubs did affordable soups, grills and sandwiches. At the very bottom of the food pyramid, the board of the Roscrea Workhouse in Tipperary tendered for a supply of white bread which "must be equal to and will be compared with the Best White Bread made in the town of Roscrea". It said something about Ireland's subservient place in the United Kingdom that far greater proportion of Irish adults and children were incarcerated in workhouses, reformatories and mental hospitals than elsewhere in the United Kingdom."
1
South Armagh: Polling day in the South Armagh by-election. Dr Patrick McCartan, although absent in America, stood for Sinn Fein, Donnelly for the Irish Parliamentary Party. The Unionist candidate had retired in favour of the Irish Parliamentary Party.
London: William Melville, police officer and first chief of the British Secret Service (born Sneem, Co. Kerry 1850), died.
Adriatic coast: The Cattaro Mutiny sees Austrian sailors in the Gulf of Cattaro (Kotor), led by two Czech Socialists, mutiny.
Berlin: Germany signed a peace accord with the Ukraine, angering the new Government in Moscow who had always viewed the area as part of Russia. Trotsky now proclaimed tht the war was over but that there would be no peace treaty with Germany. This suited Berlin, and they advanced again to within 100 miles of Petrograd/St Petersburg. This led to Trostsky being over-ruled by Lenin who argued that Russia had to give in so that the core of Communist rule could be saved. Negotiations re-opened within days that led to the peace treaty of Brest-Litvosk on March 3rd.
Jordan: Allied forces begin to occupy the Jordan Rift Valley.
2
South Armagh: The progress of the Sinn Féin movement had been slowed somewhat in South Armagh, where the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) candidate, Mr Patrick Donnelly, has secured a decisive victory in the Westminster by-election. The contest developed as a straight choice between Donnelly and Sinn Féin’s Dr Patrick McCartan, after a third candidate, the unionist Mr Thomas W. Richardson, withdrew, albeit too late to have his name removed from the ballot paper. 40 votes were still cast for Richardson, but the vast majority of Unionist support went to the IPP candidate.
These votes undoubtedly helped Donnelly’s cause proved decisive to his victory. The final result declared at Newry Workhouse:
P. Donnelly (Irish Party) 2,324
Dr McCartan (Sinn Féin) 1,305
T.W. Richardson (Unionist) 40
With 37 votes spoiled, Mr Donnelly emerged with a majority of 1,019. The number of Unionist votes cast in this constituency had been declining since the 1890s, yet unionists still polled 1,628 votes here in 1909.
When the result was declared at the workhouse, there was cheering and flag-waving, a union jack being spotted among the green flags that predominated. Afterwards, the Irish Party and Sinn Féin contingents formed separate processions and marched into the town. Opposite the Imperial Hotel in Newry town, a triumphant Mr Donnelly declared the result to be a victory for Irish freedom the like of which had not been seen in 50 years. It sent a message of conciliation and goodwill to the British people and a message to the members of the Irish Convention that the nationalists and unionists of Ulster were ready to stand hand in hand.
Joseph Devlin MP also spoke, insisting that South Armagh had made clear that ‘common sense and tried patriotism’ were the dominant virtues of Ulster nationalism.
Éamon de Valera, the President of Sinn Féin, attributed his party’s defeat to complacency. Speaking in Letterkenny, Co. Donegal, Mr de Valera remarked that they had been ‘over-confident’ as regards their position in Ulster and had consequently neglected to preach their doctrines.
In an editorial devoted to the by-election result, the Cork Examiner interpreted it differently. So complete and so ‘overwhelming’ was Mr Donnelly’s victory that that it was an ‘unmistakable setback to the Sinn Féin organisation’ and a rejection of the ‘fantastic programme that Mr de Valera has offered to the country as a substitute for sanity and statesmanship’. South Armagh, the newspaper added, was a ‘triumph of reason and patriotism over a foolish campaign which aims at an impossible Republic’.
The secret R.I.C police report to Cabinet presented on 12 February on the South Armagh by-election stated that
‘..at least one third of the Unionists ( or some 560 ) voted for the Redmondite, that many of the Nationalists were known to have abstained, and that the influence of Cardinal Logue, Archbishop of Armagh, prevented the Sinn Fein sympathisers among the younger clergy from taking an active part’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p312-313.
3
Berlin: The Army Chief of Staff orders all striking workers to return to work or face summary execution.
5
Antrim: The first U.S. ship carrying American troops to Europe , the SS Tuscania is torpedoed and sunk seven miles off the Rathlin Island lighthouse, Co. Antrim. 210 died.
Berlin: Strikes by an estimated 750,000 armament workers were over, according to a Reuters telegram from Amsterdam. The telegram further states that German government measures against the strike leaders have given rise to considerable discontent among German troops in Flanders. German official sources claim that the unrest, which began last week, was instigated by foreign agents in an effort to weaken the German army. Approximately 40 factories were affected in Berlin and there were also reports of strikes in Hamburg and Nuremberg. The workers’ list of demands was extensive and reportedly included an end to military control of industry, seizure of food stocks for the purposes of restoring proper food supply, a lifting of the restrictions on freedom of assembly and expression, and the introduction of democratic reforms in Germany, namely general, direct and secret suffrage for all men and women over the age of 20.
London: Fewer books were published in the United Kingdom during 1917 than in the previous year, according to figures produced for the Publishers’ Circular and Booksellers’ Record. “The total number of books published last year – 8,131 – marks a decline of about 1,000 on the figure for 1916. Given the difficulties associated with work of book production, in particular the shortage of cover boards used in the binding process, the decline is being interpreted as an indication of the resilience of the industry rather than as a source of concern. It is nevertheless notable that the sharpest decline has been in fiction, whereas the greatest increase has been seen in history books” a fact which gives the Irish Times some cause for comfort: ‘We may suppose that those who are studying the past are chiefly those who propose to mould the future; and we need not be afraid of our reformers so long as they do not discard the wisdom of the ages.’
France: US pilot Second Lieutenant Stephen W. Thompson achieves the first aerial victory by the U.S. military in conflict.
Petrograd: The Bolshevik government announces the separation of the Russian church and state.
6
London: The Representation of the People Act received the Royal Assent giving the vote to most women over 30 and all men aged 21 and over. It was one of the most revolutionary pieces of legislative reform to have ever passed through parliament at the time and added approximately eight million to the electorate of the United Kingdom, including six million women.
The passage of the Bill followed fierce debates in both houses of the Westminster parliament, most notably on the issue of women’s suffrage. The Bill extended the franchise to women over the age of 30 years if they are, or are married to, members of the Local Government Register or property owners. The legislation represented a milestone in a decades-long campaign waged by suffrage activists. However there was still not parity with men, as the new Bill also extends the franchise to practically all men over the age of 21. Another aspect of the Bill which was a source of considerable discussion was that of proportional representation (PR). A House of Lords amendment in favour of the introduction of a system of PR, was defeated by 223 votes to 113 in the House of Commons.
South Armagh: Polling day in the South Armagh by-election. Dr Patrick McCartan, although absent in America, stood for Sinn Fein, Donnelly for the Irish Parliamentary Party. The Unionist candidate had retired in favour of the Irish Parliamentary Party.
London: William Melville, police officer and first chief of the British Secret Service (born Sneem, Co. Kerry 1850), died.
Adriatic coast: The Cattaro Mutiny sees Austrian sailors in the Gulf of Cattaro (Kotor), led by two Czech Socialists, mutiny.
Berlin: Germany signed a peace accord with the Ukraine, angering the new Government in Moscow who had always viewed the area as part of Russia. Trotsky now proclaimed tht the war was over but that there would be no peace treaty with Germany. This suited Berlin, and they advanced again to within 100 miles of Petrograd/St Petersburg. This led to Trostsky being over-ruled by Lenin who argued that Russia had to give in so that the core of Communist rule could be saved. Negotiations re-opened within days that led to the peace treaty of Brest-Litvosk on March 3rd.
Jordan: Allied forces begin to occupy the Jordan Rift Valley.
2
South Armagh: The progress of the Sinn Féin movement had been slowed somewhat in South Armagh, where the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) candidate, Mr Patrick Donnelly, has secured a decisive victory in the Westminster by-election. The contest developed as a straight choice between Donnelly and Sinn Féin’s Dr Patrick McCartan, after a third candidate, the unionist Mr Thomas W. Richardson, withdrew, albeit too late to have his name removed from the ballot paper. 40 votes were still cast for Richardson, but the vast majority of Unionist support went to the IPP candidate.
These votes undoubtedly helped Donnelly’s cause proved decisive to his victory. The final result declared at Newry Workhouse:
P. Donnelly (Irish Party) 2,324
Dr McCartan (Sinn Féin) 1,305
T.W. Richardson (Unionist) 40
With 37 votes spoiled, Mr Donnelly emerged with a majority of 1,019. The number of Unionist votes cast in this constituency had been declining since the 1890s, yet unionists still polled 1,628 votes here in 1909.
When the result was declared at the workhouse, there was cheering and flag-waving, a union jack being spotted among the green flags that predominated. Afterwards, the Irish Party and Sinn Féin contingents formed separate processions and marched into the town. Opposite the Imperial Hotel in Newry town, a triumphant Mr Donnelly declared the result to be a victory for Irish freedom the like of which had not been seen in 50 years. It sent a message of conciliation and goodwill to the British people and a message to the members of the Irish Convention that the nationalists and unionists of Ulster were ready to stand hand in hand.
Joseph Devlin MP also spoke, insisting that South Armagh had made clear that ‘common sense and tried patriotism’ were the dominant virtues of Ulster nationalism.
Éamon de Valera, the President of Sinn Féin, attributed his party’s defeat to complacency. Speaking in Letterkenny, Co. Donegal, Mr de Valera remarked that they had been ‘over-confident’ as regards their position in Ulster and had consequently neglected to preach their doctrines.
In an editorial devoted to the by-election result, the Cork Examiner interpreted it differently. So complete and so ‘overwhelming’ was Mr Donnelly’s victory that that it was an ‘unmistakable setback to the Sinn Féin organisation’ and a rejection of the ‘fantastic programme that Mr de Valera has offered to the country as a substitute for sanity and statesmanship’. South Armagh, the newspaper added, was a ‘triumph of reason and patriotism over a foolish campaign which aims at an impossible Republic’.
The secret R.I.C police report to Cabinet presented on 12 February on the South Armagh by-election stated that
‘..at least one third of the Unionists ( or some 560 ) voted for the Redmondite, that many of the Nationalists were known to have abstained, and that the influence of Cardinal Logue, Archbishop of Armagh, prevented the Sinn Fein sympathisers among the younger clergy from taking an active part’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p312-313.
3
Berlin: The Army Chief of Staff orders all striking workers to return to work or face summary execution.
5
Antrim: The first U.S. ship carrying American troops to Europe , the SS Tuscania is torpedoed and sunk seven miles off the Rathlin Island lighthouse, Co. Antrim. 210 died.
Berlin: Strikes by an estimated 750,000 armament workers were over, according to a Reuters telegram from Amsterdam. The telegram further states that German government measures against the strike leaders have given rise to considerable discontent among German troops in Flanders. German official sources claim that the unrest, which began last week, was instigated by foreign agents in an effort to weaken the German army. Approximately 40 factories were affected in Berlin and there were also reports of strikes in Hamburg and Nuremberg. The workers’ list of demands was extensive and reportedly included an end to military control of industry, seizure of food stocks for the purposes of restoring proper food supply, a lifting of the restrictions on freedom of assembly and expression, and the introduction of democratic reforms in Germany, namely general, direct and secret suffrage for all men and women over the age of 20.
London: Fewer books were published in the United Kingdom during 1917 than in the previous year, according to figures produced for the Publishers’ Circular and Booksellers’ Record. “The total number of books published last year – 8,131 – marks a decline of about 1,000 on the figure for 1916. Given the difficulties associated with work of book production, in particular the shortage of cover boards used in the binding process, the decline is being interpreted as an indication of the resilience of the industry rather than as a source of concern. It is nevertheless notable that the sharpest decline has been in fiction, whereas the greatest increase has been seen in history books” a fact which gives the Irish Times some cause for comfort: ‘We may suppose that those who are studying the past are chiefly those who propose to mould the future; and we need not be afraid of our reformers so long as they do not discard the wisdom of the ages.’
France: US pilot Second Lieutenant Stephen W. Thompson achieves the first aerial victory by the U.S. military in conflict.
Petrograd: The Bolshevik government announces the separation of the Russian church and state.
6
London: The Representation of the People Act received the Royal Assent giving the vote to most women over 30 and all men aged 21 and over. It was one of the most revolutionary pieces of legislative reform to have ever passed through parliament at the time and added approximately eight million to the electorate of the United Kingdom, including six million women.
The passage of the Bill followed fierce debates in both houses of the Westminster parliament, most notably on the issue of women’s suffrage. The Bill extended the franchise to women over the age of 30 years if they are, or are married to, members of the Local Government Register or property owners. The legislation represented a milestone in a decades-long campaign waged by suffrage activists. However there was still not parity with men, as the new Bill also extends the franchise to practically all men over the age of 21. Another aspect of the Bill which was a source of considerable discussion was that of proportional representation (PR). A House of Lords amendment in favour of the introduction of a system of PR, was defeated by 223 votes to 113 in the House of Commons.
The man responsible for the murder of three civilians during the Easter Rising in 1916 was released from Broadmoor Asylum. Captain Bowen-Colthurst, who was tried by court-martial in June 1916, on charges connected with the shooting of Francis Sheehy Skeffington, Thomas Dickson and Patrick McIntyre at Portobello Barracks in Dublin, was found guilty but insane. After 20 months of detention, he was moved to a private hospital for 'nerve cases'. He later settled in Canada.
During February the government played a more active role in negotiations with the Irish Convention. Lloyd George, Bonar Law and George Curzon met Midleton, Bernard and Dezart. The Southern Unionists emphasised that one thing Ireland would not accept was partition.
Austrian artist, Gustav Klimt dies from the Spanish Flu aged 55 in Vienna.
During February the government played a more active role in negotiations with the Irish Convention. Lloyd George, Bonar Law and George Curzon met Midleton, Bernard and Dezart. The Southern Unionists emphasised that one thing Ireland would not accept was partition.
Austrian artist, Gustav Klimt dies from the Spanish Flu aged 55 in Vienna.
7
Dublin: De Valera writing to McCartan said of the Irish Convention:
‘the Lloyd George convention was hand picked by the English Government, was by no means representative of Irish opinion, and was bound hand and foot by the terms of reference by the guarantee to Ulster and by the fact that any agreement...had to pass as an Act through ...the English Parliament.’
Devoy's Post Bag, Volume 2. p.522-523.
Joseph McMahon serving a two year sentence in Mountjoy began a hunger strike on 'the rules drawn up by his leader Mr. Stack. Released on February 11 but the Government warned on February 22 that any future hunger strikers would not be artificially fed nor would they be released.
Belfast: Sir Edward Carson, who recently resigned his seat in the British cabinet, said that there will be no settlement in Ireland that involves a sacrifice on the part of Ulster unionists. ‘If by settlement people have in their minds surrender, well, then, there will be no settlement.’
Carson delivered his defiant message to a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Ulster Unionist Council in Belfast, which he addressed as part of his ongoing tour of Ulster. Carson also explained his decision to resign from his position in the British war cabinet. There was no hidden reason for his departure and there was certainly no disagreement with his colleagues over any special scheme in relation to Ireland. He said he was motivated by an acknowledgement of the problems that beset the Irish Convention. Should the Convention break down, it would inevitably raise questions as to what steps the government should take, which would create for him a conflict of interests.
He explained:
‘Now, I felt that that was a position which put me in a grave difficulty... If I stayed in the Government I should have to be party to their considerations. So long as you are a member of the Government all your help should be given wholeheartedly to the policy which the Government may think right to adopt. On the other hand, in advising the Government I really was not free, because I had my pledges to observe. I am a Covenanter.’
Mr Carson also addressed the issue of conscription, remarking that Irish unionism had never opposed its extension to Ireland and that there was not a man in Ulster who would disagree that they should be treated the same was the rest of the UK. He continued, saying that ‘one of the greatest mistakes that has been made in the government of Ireland during the last three years was applying different treatment to Ireland from the rest of the kingdom. What was gained by the exceptional treatment? There came the rebellion in Easter week...I am not going to dwell on it. Heaven knows the more we forget it the better.’
David Marcus "Markey" Robinson, artist, born in Belfast. (died 1999).
7
Dublin: De Valera writing to McCartan said of the Irish Convention:
‘the Lloyd George convention was hand picked by the English Government, was by no means representative of Irish opinion, and was bound hand and foot by the terms of reference by the guarantee to Ulster and by the fact that any agreement...had to pass as an Act through ...the English Parliament.’
Devoy's Post Bag, Volume 2. p.522-523.
Joseph McMahon serving a two year sentence in Mountjoy began a hunger strike on 'the rules drawn up by his leader Mr. Stack. Released on February 11 but the Government warned on February 22 that any future hunger strikers would not be artificially fed nor would they be released.
Belfast: Sir Edward Carson, who recently resigned his seat in the British cabinet, said that there will be no settlement in Ireland that involves a sacrifice on the part of Ulster unionists. ‘If by settlement people have in their minds surrender, well, then, there will be no settlement.’
Carson delivered his defiant message to a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Ulster Unionist Council in Belfast, which he addressed as part of his ongoing tour of Ulster. Carson also explained his decision to resign from his position in the British war cabinet. There was no hidden reason for his departure and there was certainly no disagreement with his colleagues over any special scheme in relation to Ireland. He said he was motivated by an acknowledgement of the problems that beset the Irish Convention. Should the Convention break down, it would inevitably raise questions as to what steps the government should take, which would create for him a conflict of interests.
He explained:
‘Now, I felt that that was a position which put me in a grave difficulty... If I stayed in the Government I should have to be party to their considerations. So long as you are a member of the Government all your help should be given wholeheartedly to the policy which the Government may think right to adopt. On the other hand, in advising the Government I really was not free, because I had my pledges to observe. I am a Covenanter.’
Mr Carson also addressed the issue of conscription, remarking that Irish unionism had never opposed its extension to Ireland and that there was not a man in Ulster who would disagree that they should be treated the same was the rest of the UK. He continued, saying that ‘one of the greatest mistakes that has been made in the government of Ireland during the last three years was applying different treatment to Ireland from the rest of the kingdom. What was gained by the exceptional treatment? There came the rebellion in Easter week...I am not going to dwell on it. Heaven knows the more we forget it the better.’
David Marcus "Markey" Robinson, artist, born in Belfast. (died 1999).
8
Government announces the British meat ration reduced to 20 oz per adult per week.
10
Ernesto Teodoro Moneta, President of the International Society of Peace, a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, and known in Italy as the “Apostle of Peace,” dies in Milan. It is from him that we get the official motto of the EU: "In varietate concordia!" United in Diversity.
Government announces the British meat ration reduced to 20 oz per adult per week.
10
Ernesto Teodoro Moneta, President of the International Society of Peace, a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, and known in Italy as the “Apostle of Peace,” dies in Milan. It is from him that we get the official motto of the EU: "In varietate concordia!" United in Diversity.
11
Dublin: Tillage week began as an initiative by the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction to encourage Irish farmers to increase their food production during 1918 by as much as they can. The latest push towards tillage followed the 1917 demand from the department that an additional 10% of Irish land be cultivated, the response to which saw an impressive increase in the area under tillage by no less than 637,000 acres. According to the Irish Times, the publicity campaign is ‘no more than the organised expression of the national need’.
London: Chaim Weizmann is appointed to head a commission investigating the Jewish colonies in Palestine.
Washington DC: President Woodrow Wilson addressed Congress on the rights of small nations to self-determination:
“ ..National aspirations must be respected; peoples may now be dominated and governed only by their own consent. “self-determination” is not a mere phrase. It is an important principle of action which statesmen will henceforth ignore at their peril”
These fiery phrases would prove to be enormously inflential in months and years to come.
Dublin: Tillage week began as an initiative by the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction to encourage Irish farmers to increase their food production during 1918 by as much as they can. The latest push towards tillage followed the 1917 demand from the department that an additional 10% of Irish land be cultivated, the response to which saw an impressive increase in the area under tillage by no less than 637,000 acres. According to the Irish Times, the publicity campaign is ‘no more than the organised expression of the national need’.
London: Chaim Weizmann is appointed to head a commission investigating the Jewish colonies in Palestine.
Washington DC: President Woodrow Wilson addressed Congress on the rights of small nations to self-determination:
“ ..National aspirations must be respected; peoples may now be dominated and governed only by their own consent. “self-determination” is not a mere phrase. It is an important principle of action which statesmen will henceforth ignore at their peril”
These fiery phrases would prove to be enormously inflential in months and years to come.
12
Part of a secret R.I.C report to the Cabinet read of :
‘continued prevalence of political unrest and the open defiance of Government authority characteristic of the Sinn Fein movement’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p265-266
The Irish Convention and the dangers of evil literature were on the menu of the Lenten Pastorals delivered by members of the Irish catholic hierarchy at churches around the country. Front and centre in the pastoral message from His Eminence Cardinal Logue was the fate of the Irish Convention. The Cardinal struck an almost sombre note when asking for consideration of ‘our own poor country’ and the ‘crisis’ in which it finds itself.
‘A number of intelligent, experienced and patriotic Irishmen have been brought together to consider her needs, and devise a constitution which would bring peace, put an end to old jealousies and divisions, enabling all Irishmen to unite in promoting the best interests of their common country.’
Both the Archbishop of Dublin and the Bishop of Cork echoed the Cardinal’s hopes for the Convention. So too did the Bishop of Down and Connor, Rev. Dr MacRory, himself a member of the Convention, who declared that he would be prepared to make ‘any reasonable sacrifice that would be consistent with true self-government’. The Bishop of Meath, Dr Gaughran, addressed the issue of ‘evil’ literature and took the opportunity to praise the work of the Catholic Truth Society: ‘There can be no doubt that the disasters which have overtaken the Church in France might have been, in great measure, averted if Catholics, a generation ago, had founded a sound Catholic Truth Society with an effective Catholic press.’
There is need to beware, the Bishop added; a ‘bad book’ was like a ‘bait with a concealed hook’, splendid volumes with most attractive binding ‘tempting the hand of the curious and inviting the attention of the student’. Much of the current literary offering was trash, he claimed, ‘better suited for the fire than for the use of the man in pursuit of truth and knowledge.’
Ireland’s catholic Archbishops and Bishops are ‘pre-eminently fitted’ to instructing their flocks, an editorial for the Cork Examiner has insisted. The pastorals will therefore be read by the Catholic laity ‘with the full knowledge that that the spiritual advice contained in them must necessarily intensify the religious spirit of the people and awaken in them to a deeper sense of their duties and obligations as Christians’.
Part of a secret R.I.C report to the Cabinet read of :
‘continued prevalence of political unrest and the open defiance of Government authority characteristic of the Sinn Fein movement’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p265-266
The Irish Convention and the dangers of evil literature were on the menu of the Lenten Pastorals delivered by members of the Irish catholic hierarchy at churches around the country. Front and centre in the pastoral message from His Eminence Cardinal Logue was the fate of the Irish Convention. The Cardinal struck an almost sombre note when asking for consideration of ‘our own poor country’ and the ‘crisis’ in which it finds itself.
‘A number of intelligent, experienced and patriotic Irishmen have been brought together to consider her needs, and devise a constitution which would bring peace, put an end to old jealousies and divisions, enabling all Irishmen to unite in promoting the best interests of their common country.’
Both the Archbishop of Dublin and the Bishop of Cork echoed the Cardinal’s hopes for the Convention. So too did the Bishop of Down and Connor, Rev. Dr MacRory, himself a member of the Convention, who declared that he would be prepared to make ‘any reasonable sacrifice that would be consistent with true self-government’. The Bishop of Meath, Dr Gaughran, addressed the issue of ‘evil’ literature and took the opportunity to praise the work of the Catholic Truth Society: ‘There can be no doubt that the disasters which have overtaken the Church in France might have been, in great measure, averted if Catholics, a generation ago, had founded a sound Catholic Truth Society with an effective Catholic press.’
There is need to beware, the Bishop added; a ‘bad book’ was like a ‘bait with a concealed hook’, splendid volumes with most attractive binding ‘tempting the hand of the curious and inviting the attention of the student’. Much of the current literary offering was trash, he claimed, ‘better suited for the fire than for the use of the man in pursuit of truth and knowledge.’
Ireland’s catholic Archbishops and Bishops are ‘pre-eminently fitted’ to instructing their flocks, an editorial for the Cork Examiner has insisted. The pastorals will therefore be read by the Catholic laity ‘with the full knowledge that that the spiritual advice contained in them must necessarily intensify the religious spirit of the people and awaken in them to a deeper sense of their duties and obligations as Christians’.
On this day, a group of American soldiers stormed Europe -- not to the boom of guns, but the swinging rhythm of saxophones, drums and horns. They came to fight in the mud against the Germans in a war approaching its end -- but their arrival also marked the start of a sweeter, cultural conquest.
The 369th Infantry's "Harlem Hellfighters Band" gave what is said to have been the first jazz concert on European soil -- in the northwestern French city of Nantes. The 369th Infantry was one of the four African American regiments sent from the racially segregated Unites States to fight under French command and led by James Reese Europe "the first African American officer to lead troops in a wartime attack," When they were not fighting at the front, they played to entertain the troops and locals. The 369th Infantry received the Croix de Guerre French military decoration for bravery. France also awarded the Legion d'Honneur to 171 members of the regiment for liberating the village of Sechault, where a monument to them now stands. Lieutenant Europe composed one of his best-known tunes, "One Patrol in No Man's Land", while lying injured in hospital. He returned from the war a hero, only to die months later in May 1919 at the age of 39 -- stabbed in the neck by one of his bandmates. |
13
Irish Convention: Lloyd George met the invited delegation from the Convention. He pointed out that wartime necessitated that fiscal relations remain as they are until its conclusion, and that a settlement was only possible if partition was ruled out. Carson in the meantime, wrote to Lloyd George urging that a federal settlement be reached, who took this as a signal of movement within the Ulster Unionist camp.
Henry Arthur Blake, British colonial administrator and Governor of Hong Kong died. (born in Limerick 1840).
14
Dublin: The Irish Independent reported on ‘Discrimination Against Ireland’ in the British Food Controller’s Regulations:
‘One of the most important Irish industries is in a position of serious danger largely as a consequence of the Food Controller’s regulations. Thousands of hands are employed in the Irish bacon factories, and it is feared that some of these stores will have to shut down owing to the difficulty experienced in getting a sufficient number of pigs for killing and curing. Some of the hands, it is said, have received notice of dismissal in Limerick… the scarcity of pigs at present is due to a variety of causes, but added to the scarcity is the increased export to Great Britain of Irish pigs and carcases…the number of pigs exported from Ireland, exceeded the number killed for curing by over 1,000’.
The reasons for such high exports were mainly financial. Maximum prices fixed in Britain were 4 to 5 shillings higher per hundredweight than the maximum allowable in Ireland and as a result, British buyers were able to offer higher purchase prices to Irish producers than Irish buyers and were also immune from prosecution. London also ruled that from March, pig supplies between Irish curers and exporters would be rationed.
The Independent continued: ‘So long as the Englishman has a sufficiency of bacon, the [British] Food Controller appears to care very little what becomes of an Irish industry which has flourished for close on a century’
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 4/15
Sinn Fein prisoners went on hunger strike to demand political treatment in Mountjoy. The policy of forcible feeding had by now been abandoned and the ‘Cat and Mouse Act’ the name popularly given to the ‘Prisoners temporary discharge for health Act’, was reintroduced. This act had originally been introduced in 1913 as a measure to control suffragettes. It allowed for a temporary release on health grounds, but could be revoked without further trial if the offence was repeated. From 1913 it was criticised on humanitarian grounds and was certainly not successful as a deterrent.
Cork: MacCurtain returned from the Armagh by-election and resumed duty as Cork Brigade Commandant.
Sean O’Hegarty who had returned from West Cork was elected Vice-Commandant and Florence O’Donoghue Brigade Adjutant. Terence McSwiney was Commandant of 1st Battalion and Sean O’Sullivan, Commandant of 2nd Battalion.
Petrograd: Russia switches from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar; the date skips from February 1 to February 14.
New York: 'Swanee' released by 19 year old George Gershwin.
Irish Convention: Lloyd George met the invited delegation from the Convention. He pointed out that wartime necessitated that fiscal relations remain as they are until its conclusion, and that a settlement was only possible if partition was ruled out. Carson in the meantime, wrote to Lloyd George urging that a federal settlement be reached, who took this as a signal of movement within the Ulster Unionist camp.
Henry Arthur Blake, British colonial administrator and Governor of Hong Kong died. (born in Limerick 1840).
14
Dublin: The Irish Independent reported on ‘Discrimination Against Ireland’ in the British Food Controller’s Regulations:
‘One of the most important Irish industries is in a position of serious danger largely as a consequence of the Food Controller’s regulations. Thousands of hands are employed in the Irish bacon factories, and it is feared that some of these stores will have to shut down owing to the difficulty experienced in getting a sufficient number of pigs for killing and curing. Some of the hands, it is said, have received notice of dismissal in Limerick… the scarcity of pigs at present is due to a variety of causes, but added to the scarcity is the increased export to Great Britain of Irish pigs and carcases…the number of pigs exported from Ireland, exceeded the number killed for curing by over 1,000’.
The reasons for such high exports were mainly financial. Maximum prices fixed in Britain were 4 to 5 shillings higher per hundredweight than the maximum allowable in Ireland and as a result, British buyers were able to offer higher purchase prices to Irish producers than Irish buyers and were also immune from prosecution. London also ruled that from March, pig supplies between Irish curers and exporters would be rationed.
The Independent continued: ‘So long as the Englishman has a sufficiency of bacon, the [British] Food Controller appears to care very little what becomes of an Irish industry which has flourished for close on a century’
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 4/15
Sinn Fein prisoners went on hunger strike to demand political treatment in Mountjoy. The policy of forcible feeding had by now been abandoned and the ‘Cat and Mouse Act’ the name popularly given to the ‘Prisoners temporary discharge for health Act’, was reintroduced. This act had originally been introduced in 1913 as a measure to control suffragettes. It allowed for a temporary release on health grounds, but could be revoked without further trial if the offence was repeated. From 1913 it was criticised on humanitarian grounds and was certainly not successful as a deterrent.
Cork: MacCurtain returned from the Armagh by-election and resumed duty as Cork Brigade Commandant.
Sean O’Hegarty who had returned from West Cork was elected Vice-Commandant and Florence O’Donoghue Brigade Adjutant. Terence McSwiney was Commandant of 1st Battalion and Sean O’Sullivan, Commandant of 2nd Battalion.
Petrograd: Russia switches from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar; the date skips from February 1 to February 14.
New York: 'Swanee' released by 19 year old George Gershwin.
Western Front: By this stage in February 1918, Germany was almost certain to lose the war if it continued for much longer.
On the face of it, Germany and the Central Powers were in a stronger position in early 1918. After the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the Russians had withdrawn from the war and the Germans had secured new territory in the east. Romania had been defeated and Italy and Greece were no longer a threat. By 1918, it was clear that the Great War would be decided on the western front.
The German command knew that after America joined the war they could potentially tip the balance in favour of the allies. By early 1918, the Americans had already begun to make a difference on the western front. Germany was concerned that if they were allowed to build up their strength the allies could inflict a decisive defeat on Imperial Germany. The estimates were that some 4 million combined American, British and French troops would be in the field by early summer: more than 1 million more than Germany had marched to war with in 1914. Furthermore, as a result of the allied naval blockade, Germany was on the brink of starvation. Unrest and labour strikes had become common in German cities and there was a growing threat of revolution.
Ludendorff and Hindenburg, the leaders of the German armed forces (and in many ways the political masters of a German state increasingly under military control), knew that if they were going to achieve a favourable peace, they would have to force the Allies’ hand sooner rather than later. Ludendorff believed that they had only one last chance to strike a decisive blow against the allies before it was too late.
Allied High Command were certainly aware that Germany had but one last-ditch gamble to try to win before their armies were ground out of existence by the sheer weight of the industrial, economic, and demographic superiority of their opponents.
Germany now started moving fifty divisions by rail from the former eastern front to the western front. Ludendorff decided that the goal of the offensive would be to divide the British and the French armies. The British were mainly based in northern France, while the French army was located in the centre and east of France. The Germans wanted to drive a wedge between the British and the French. They intended to drive the British back to the Channel Ports. Concurrently, the German command planned to seize the remaining ports in Belgium. They hoped that by defeating the British that they would seek peace terms with Germany and after capitulating, the French would be forced to negotiate with Berlin. This would, in turn, persuade the Americans to also seek a negotiated settlement with the Germans. The Germans knew that it was almost impossible for them to achieve outright victory and that their only hope was some form of advantageous negotiated settlement.
While the German attack was expected, it was unknown from which part of the Western Front it would come. In preparation, the British reinforced their positions near the coast while the French strengthened their positions to the south. However, as German Military planners had predicted, this left a weakness in the allied lines between the British and French positions.
On the face of it, Germany and the Central Powers were in a stronger position in early 1918. After the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the Russians had withdrawn from the war and the Germans had secured new territory in the east. Romania had been defeated and Italy and Greece were no longer a threat. By 1918, it was clear that the Great War would be decided on the western front.
The German command knew that after America joined the war they could potentially tip the balance in favour of the allies. By early 1918, the Americans had already begun to make a difference on the western front. Germany was concerned that if they were allowed to build up their strength the allies could inflict a decisive defeat on Imperial Germany. The estimates were that some 4 million combined American, British and French troops would be in the field by early summer: more than 1 million more than Germany had marched to war with in 1914. Furthermore, as a result of the allied naval blockade, Germany was on the brink of starvation. Unrest and labour strikes had become common in German cities and there was a growing threat of revolution.
Ludendorff and Hindenburg, the leaders of the German armed forces (and in many ways the political masters of a German state increasingly under military control), knew that if they were going to achieve a favourable peace, they would have to force the Allies’ hand sooner rather than later. Ludendorff believed that they had only one last chance to strike a decisive blow against the allies before it was too late.
Allied High Command were certainly aware that Germany had but one last-ditch gamble to try to win before their armies were ground out of existence by the sheer weight of the industrial, economic, and demographic superiority of their opponents.
Germany now started moving fifty divisions by rail from the former eastern front to the western front. Ludendorff decided that the goal of the offensive would be to divide the British and the French armies. The British were mainly based in northern France, while the French army was located in the centre and east of France. The Germans wanted to drive a wedge between the British and the French. They intended to drive the British back to the Channel Ports. Concurrently, the German command planned to seize the remaining ports in Belgium. They hoped that by defeating the British that they would seek peace terms with Germany and after capitulating, the French would be forced to negotiate with Berlin. This would, in turn, persuade the Americans to also seek a negotiated settlement with the Germans. The Germans knew that it was almost impossible for them to achieve outright victory and that their only hope was some form of advantageous negotiated settlement.
While the German attack was expected, it was unknown from which part of the Western Front it would come. In preparation, the British reinforced their positions near the coast while the French strengthened their positions to the south. However, as German Military planners had predicted, this left a weakness in the allied lines between the British and French positions.
16
Dublin: The Irish Times commented that Sinn Fein did little other than 'raise the cry that nothing must be exported to Great Britain, and seeks, by fomenting a panic about national starvation, to stampede the country into this idiotic and fatal policy...if we extend these prohibitions beyond the point of absolute necessity, we shall invite retaliation; and, if England begins to retaliate, we shall be starving within a month'
Lithuania: The Council of Lithuania declares independence from the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.
London: Four Riesenflugzeug bombers of the German Luftstreitkräfte's Riesenflugzeug Abteilung ("Giant Airplane Detachment") 501 (Rfa 501) raid England. One of them carries a single 1,000-kg (2,205-lb) bomb which it aims at London Victoria station, but it lands half a mile (0.8 km) away on the Royal Hospital, Chelsea.
Barcelona: Joan Miró's first solo exhibition opens at the Dalmau Gallery; his work is ridiculed and defaced.
Dublin: The Irish Times commented that Sinn Fein did little other than 'raise the cry that nothing must be exported to Great Britain, and seeks, by fomenting a panic about national starvation, to stampede the country into this idiotic and fatal policy...if we extend these prohibitions beyond the point of absolute necessity, we shall invite retaliation; and, if England begins to retaliate, we shall be starving within a month'
Lithuania: The Council of Lithuania declares independence from the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.
London: Four Riesenflugzeug bombers of the German Luftstreitkräfte's Riesenflugzeug Abteilung ("Giant Airplane Detachment") 501 (Rfa 501) raid England. One of them carries a single 1,000-kg (2,205-lb) bomb which it aims at London Victoria station, but it lands half a mile (0.8 km) away on the Royal Hospital, Chelsea.
Barcelona: Joan Miró's first solo exhibition opens at the Dalmau Gallery; his work is ridiculed and defaced.
17
Cork: The collier SS Pinewood is shelled and sinks in the Atlantic Ocean 15 nautical miles (28 km) south of Mine Head, Co. Cork by U-86 with the loss of two of her crew.
New York: Dr Patrick McCartan wrote to US Secretary of State, Lansing, strongly arguing against conscription of Irish citizens living in the US which the British Government had planned to introduce. The letter was leaked to the press, who made an issue of the fact that America would allow Britain to conscript Irish-American’s for their war effort. The Wilson administration soon made it clear that no war recruiting for another nation would be tolerated.
Washington: Shane Leslie wrote to his wife on the death of Spring Rice, the former British Ambassador to the US:
"I must say we were all upset at Spring Rice's death and I have an apprehension that there is nobody left now who really understands the delicacies and possibilities of the American situation..."
University of Maryland Archives. Box: 20 Fold: 5 Shane Leslie - Corres. to Leonie Blanche Leslie February 19,1918
Leslie writing to Seymour Leslie on the same date:
"...It is ridiculous to give Lonsdale a peerage and leave (Horace) Plunkett a knight - while Spring-Rice dies of grief unhonoured and unloved in Ottawa. It is a good test of how worth is appreciated in this war. The Spring-Rice tragedy was piteous but I shall rake the Foreign Office one day. I wanted them to give him a "Patrick" and was prepaying a request from the three Cardinals to that effect when he died. I wrote strong testimony in the Sun to his diplomacy for which the State Department sent me an approval. Poor dear Springey - he was looking forward to writing his memoirs in Limerick. He was horribly shabbily treated and if the world were not at an end I would make a considerable row..."
University of Maryland Archives. Box: 25 Fold: 17 Corres. from Shane Leslie to Seymour Leslie. Internet Archives.
17
Cork: The collier SS Pinewood is shelled and sinks in the Atlantic Ocean 15 nautical miles (28 km) south of Mine Head, Co. Cork by U-86 with the loss of two of her crew.
New York: Dr Patrick McCartan wrote to US Secretary of State, Lansing, strongly arguing against conscription of Irish citizens living in the US which the British Government had planned to introduce. The letter was leaked to the press, who made an issue of the fact that America would allow Britain to conscript Irish-American’s for their war effort. The Wilson administration soon made it clear that no war recruiting for another nation would be tolerated.
Washington: Shane Leslie wrote to his wife on the death of Spring Rice, the former British Ambassador to the US:
"I must say we were all upset at Spring Rice's death and I have an apprehension that there is nobody left now who really understands the delicacies and possibilities of the American situation..."
University of Maryland Archives. Box: 20 Fold: 5 Shane Leslie - Corres. to Leonie Blanche Leslie February 19,1918
Leslie writing to Seymour Leslie on the same date:
"...It is ridiculous to give Lonsdale a peerage and leave (Horace) Plunkett a knight - while Spring-Rice dies of grief unhonoured and unloved in Ottawa. It is a good test of how worth is appreciated in this war. The Spring-Rice tragedy was piteous but I shall rake the Foreign Office one day. I wanted them to give him a "Patrick" and was prepaying a request from the three Cardinals to that effect when he died. I wrote strong testimony in the Sun to his diplomacy for which the State Department sent me an approval. Poor dear Springey - he was looking forward to writing his memoirs in Limerick. He was horribly shabbily treated and if the world were not at an end I would make a considerable row..."
University of Maryland Archives. Box: 25 Fold: 17 Corres. from Shane Leslie to Seymour Leslie. Internet Archives.
Lord Birkenhead, Sir Frederick Smith (1872-1930), the Prosecuting Counsel and Attorney General of Great Britain in 1916 returned to London on 16th February from New York. The previous month, Birkenhead was reported in the Boston Post as saying that nothing had given him greater delight than the execution of Casement and that he had threatened to resign from Cabinet unless Casement was hanged.
In addition, he declared on the Irish Convention that ‘..it would be very inconvenient if anything should happen just now to overturn the attempt to bring about a settlement. In a few months, whatever happens, it won't amount to a damn...’
Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Independence 1866-1922’. Devin-Adair. 1957. p.242
The Daiy Telegraph secured an interview with him and asked him for a comment (see opposite)
Despite his Unionist background, Smith played an important role in the negotiations that led to the signature of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1921, which led to the formation of the Irish Free State the following year. Much of the treaty was drafted by Smith. His support for this, and his warm relations with the Irish nationalist leaders Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins, angered some of his former Unionist associates, notably Sir Edward Carson. Upon signing the Treaty he remarked to Collins, "I may have just signed my political death warrant", to which Collins dryly and with premonitory accuracy replied, "I have just signed my actual death warrant". Smith died of alcohol related issues in 1930.
In addition, he declared on the Irish Convention that ‘..it would be very inconvenient if anything should happen just now to overturn the attempt to bring about a settlement. In a few months, whatever happens, it won't amount to a damn...’
Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Independence 1866-1922’. Devin-Adair. 1957. p.242
The Daiy Telegraph secured an interview with him and asked him for a comment (see opposite)
Despite his Unionist background, Smith played an important role in the negotiations that led to the signature of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1921, which led to the formation of the Irish Free State the following year. Much of the treaty was drafted by Smith. His support for this, and his warm relations with the Irish nationalist leaders Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins, angered some of his former Unionist associates, notably Sir Edward Carson. Upon signing the Treaty he remarked to Collins, "I may have just signed my political death warrant", to which Collins dryly and with premonitory accuracy replied, "I have just signed my actual death warrant". Smith died of alcohol related issues in 1930.
Sir William Robert Robertson resigned as Chief of the Imperial General Staff 1916-1918 and succeeded by Longford born, Sir Henry Wilson (1864-1922).
Field Marshal Sir William Robert Robertson, 1st Baronet, GCB, GCMG, GCVO, DSO (29 January 1860 – 12 February 1933) was a British Army officer who served as Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS) – the professional head of the British Army – from 1916 to 1918 during the First World War. As CIGS he was committed to a Western Front strategy focusing on Germany and was against what he saw as peripheral operations on other fronts. While CIGS, Robertson had increasingly poor relations with David Lloyd George, Secretary of State for War and then Prime Minister, and threatened resignation at Lloyd George's attempt to subordinate the British forces to the French Commander-in-Chief, Robert Nivelle. In 1917 Robertson supported the continuation of the Third Ypres Offensive, at odds with Lloyd George's view that Britain's war effort ought to be focused on the other theatres until the arrival of sufficient US troops on the Western Front. Robertson was the first and only British Army soldier to rise from private soldier to field marshal
His sucessor, Sir Henry Wilson was assassinated by the IRA in June 1922.
Field Marshal Sir William Robert Robertson, 1st Baronet, GCB, GCMG, GCVO, DSO (29 January 1860 – 12 February 1933) was a British Army officer who served as Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS) – the professional head of the British Army – from 1916 to 1918 during the First World War. As CIGS he was committed to a Western Front strategy focusing on Germany and was against what he saw as peripheral operations on other fronts. While CIGS, Robertson had increasingly poor relations with David Lloyd George, Secretary of State for War and then Prime Minister, and threatened resignation at Lloyd George's attempt to subordinate the British forces to the French Commander-in-Chief, Robert Nivelle. In 1917 Robertson supported the continuation of the Third Ypres Offensive, at odds with Lloyd George's view that Britain's war effort ought to be focused on the other theatres until the arrival of sufficient US troops on the Western Front. Robertson was the first and only British Army soldier to rise from private soldier to field marshal
His sucessor, Sir Henry Wilson was assassinated by the IRA in June 1922.
19
The threatened closure of the Kynoch factory in Arklow, Co. Wicklow was averted following an intervention by John Redmond and his Irish Party colleagues. The factory employed 3,500 people and was a mainstay of the town’s economy.
The decision to close was believed to originate with Winston Churchill, the Minister of Munitions. However, there had also been reports that the planned closure was the consequence of ‘personal animus’ against a leading figure within the firm by a member of the Munitions Ministry. When the plans emerged, Canon Flavin, the parish priest in Arklow, wrote a strongly-worded telegram to Mr Redmond and others stating that it was a dreadful calamity and would result in over £250,000 in wages being lost to the town. The repercussions would be felt not only in Wicklow but in the neighbouring counties of Wexford and Dublin as well.
Redmond, in co-operation with Capt. Donelan MP and John Donovan MP, had for some time been in communication with the Ministry of Munitions over reduced output from the Kynoch plant and the threat it posed to employment. In light of the announcement of a closure, these efforts were redoubled, with Redmond leading a deputation – consisting of Kynoch directors and local town and county officials – to meet senior ministry representatives and made their case.
The Kynoch plant pre-dates the war and for almost two decades beforehand it was a leading manufacturer of explosives. Once the war broke out it expanded which resulted in more employment. Although the announcement that the factory would remain open came as good news to those dependent upon it, no assurances were forthcoming that the facility would not be downsized.
Estonia: The Imperial Russian Navy evacuates Tallinn through thick ice over the Gulf of Finland.
The threatened closure of the Kynoch factory in Arklow, Co. Wicklow was averted following an intervention by John Redmond and his Irish Party colleagues. The factory employed 3,500 people and was a mainstay of the town’s economy.
The decision to close was believed to originate with Winston Churchill, the Minister of Munitions. However, there had also been reports that the planned closure was the consequence of ‘personal animus’ against a leading figure within the firm by a member of the Munitions Ministry. When the plans emerged, Canon Flavin, the parish priest in Arklow, wrote a strongly-worded telegram to Mr Redmond and others stating that it was a dreadful calamity and would result in over £250,000 in wages being lost to the town. The repercussions would be felt not only in Wicklow but in the neighbouring counties of Wexford and Dublin as well.
Redmond, in co-operation with Capt. Donelan MP and John Donovan MP, had for some time been in communication with the Ministry of Munitions over reduced output from the Kynoch plant and the threat it posed to employment. In light of the announcement of a closure, these efforts were redoubled, with Redmond leading a deputation – consisting of Kynoch directors and local town and county officials – to meet senior ministry representatives and made their case.
The Kynoch plant pre-dates the war and for almost two decades beforehand it was a leading manufacturer of explosives. Once the war broke out it expanded which resulted in more employment. Although the announcement that the factory would remain open came as good news to those dependent upon it, no assurances were forthcoming that the facility would not be downsized.
Estonia: The Imperial Russian Navy evacuates Tallinn through thick ice over the Gulf of Finland.
20
Dublin: A Southern Unionist Committee formed in the Shelbourne Hotel, Dublin.
The Irish Times declared that 'the truth is that the law has ceased to exist in Ireland' and blamed the threat of hunger strike as the cause.
Daylight Savings
Concerns about the impact of Daylight Saving was having on agricultural communities continued to grow.
Before 1880, the legal time at any place in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was defined as local mean time.
This was the local mean time at Dunsink Observatory outside Dublin, and was about 25 minutes 21 seconds behind Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), which was defined by the same act to be the legal time for Great Britain. After the Easter Rising, the time difference between Ireland and Britain was found inconvenient for telegraphic communication and the Time (Ireland) Act, 1916 provided that Irish time would be the same as British time, from 2:00 am Dublin Mean Time on Sunday 1 October 1916.
Summer time (daylight saving time) had been introduced in May 1916 across the United Kingdom as a temporary efficiency measure for the First World War, and the changeover from Dublin time to Greenwich time was simultaneous with the changeover from summer time to winter time. John Dillon opposed the first reading of the Time (Ireland) Bill for having been introduced without consultation of the Irish Parliamentary Party; he said the different time in Ireland "reminds us that we are coming into a strange country". T. M. Healy opposed the second reading on the basis that "while the Daylight Saving Bill added to the length of your daylight, this Bill adds to the length of your darkness".
The most pressing issue at this time stemmed from the fact that the Agricultural Wages Board has decided that the normal working day should end at 7pm and that all hours worked subsequently will have to be counted as overtime. Some commentators argue that this provision, combined with the introduction of Daylight Saving Time and the fact that Ireland now operated on Greenwich Time rather than Dublin Time, means that the agricultural working day now ended at what, before 1916, would have been 5.35pm instead of 6pm. This left employers with the choice between missing out on almost two and half hours labour per week, or incurring the added expenditure of overtime wages.
One suggestion put forward was to allow a commission of astronomers to devise a seasonal schedule to allow for maximum advantage to be extracted from the hours of sunlight. This would presumably involve two or three changes in clock time during the year. Another proposal, put forward by the Irish Times, is to establish a body consisting of representatives of the Department of Agriculture, the Chambers of Commerce and of urban and rural labour – to examine how the opposing interests of town and country peoples might be reconciled. The introduction of summer time to Ireland the previous year was resisted by many politicians and high-ranking members of the Irish Catholic Church.
Daylight Savings controversy was not just an Irish issue - it was contentious in the US, Europe, New Zealand and Australia.
Below are some public awareness examples from the United States.
Dublin: A Southern Unionist Committee formed in the Shelbourne Hotel, Dublin.
The Irish Times declared that 'the truth is that the law has ceased to exist in Ireland' and blamed the threat of hunger strike as the cause.
Daylight Savings
Concerns about the impact of Daylight Saving was having on agricultural communities continued to grow.
Before 1880, the legal time at any place in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was defined as local mean time.
This was the local mean time at Dunsink Observatory outside Dublin, and was about 25 minutes 21 seconds behind Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), which was defined by the same act to be the legal time for Great Britain. After the Easter Rising, the time difference between Ireland and Britain was found inconvenient for telegraphic communication and the Time (Ireland) Act, 1916 provided that Irish time would be the same as British time, from 2:00 am Dublin Mean Time on Sunday 1 October 1916.
Summer time (daylight saving time) had been introduced in May 1916 across the United Kingdom as a temporary efficiency measure for the First World War, and the changeover from Dublin time to Greenwich time was simultaneous with the changeover from summer time to winter time. John Dillon opposed the first reading of the Time (Ireland) Bill for having been introduced without consultation of the Irish Parliamentary Party; he said the different time in Ireland "reminds us that we are coming into a strange country". T. M. Healy opposed the second reading on the basis that "while the Daylight Saving Bill added to the length of your daylight, this Bill adds to the length of your darkness".
The most pressing issue at this time stemmed from the fact that the Agricultural Wages Board has decided that the normal working day should end at 7pm and that all hours worked subsequently will have to be counted as overtime. Some commentators argue that this provision, combined with the introduction of Daylight Saving Time and the fact that Ireland now operated on Greenwich Time rather than Dublin Time, means that the agricultural working day now ended at what, before 1916, would have been 5.35pm instead of 6pm. This left employers with the choice between missing out on almost two and half hours labour per week, or incurring the added expenditure of overtime wages.
One suggestion put forward was to allow a commission of astronomers to devise a seasonal schedule to allow for maximum advantage to be extracted from the hours of sunlight. This would presumably involve two or three changes in clock time during the year. Another proposal, put forward by the Irish Times, is to establish a body consisting of representatives of the Department of Agriculture, the Chambers of Commerce and of urban and rural labour – to examine how the opposing interests of town and country peoples might be reconciled. The introduction of summer time to Ireland the previous year was resisted by many politicians and high-ranking members of the Irish Catholic Church.
Daylight Savings controversy was not just an Irish issue - it was contentious in the US, Europe, New Zealand and Australia.
Below are some public awareness examples from the United States.
21
"A Remarkable Affair...Lawlessness in Dublin..." Irish Times
Diarmuid Lynch, as Sinn Fein Food Director authorised the seizure and slaughter of 34 pigs on the North Circular Road, Dublin to call attention to the need for preventing the export of livestock.
The Irish Times reported the event on 22 February 1918 as:
LAWLESSNESS IN DUBLIN
Commandeering and Slaughtering of Pigs on Way to England Povoked by Regulations Which Are Killing the Irish Bacon Industry and Depriving the People of Necessary Food.
“Thirty four pigs were yesterday ‘commandeered’ and slaughtered in Dublin by Sinn Feiners, who thus made good their threat to prevent the export of pigs from Ireland to England. The animals, in two droves, were being taken from the City Market after the weekly sale by way of the North Circular Road to the spot for dispatch across the Channel, and the seizure was made in the vicinity of Dorset Street by twenty four Sinn Feiners. Before taking charge of the pigs the men asked the drovers if they were intended for export, and on being informed that such was the case, drove the animals to Portland Place, and into a depot belonging to the Corporation Cleansing Department, the gates of which they closed.
Evidently, by pre-arrangement, a number of slaughtermen were waiting at the yard. They at once set to work, and quickly killed every pig, then removed the offal and dressed the carcasses, which they laid out in orderly array.
Police were summoned by telephone, and arrived by tram as well as on foot. Under the direction of inspectors, they surrounded the yard, but took no action to stop the unusual proceedings. The police upon the scene numbered close on a hundred, and were drawn from five divisions.
In the evening the carcasses were removed in motor lorries of Messrs. Thompson’s Ltd, Great Brunswick Street, from the depot, which was in a remarkable state from the slaughter, to the bacon factory of Messrs. Donnelly at Bridgefoot Street. Policemen satisfied themselves as to the delivery of the carcasses to the factory, but made no arrests in connection with the remarkable affair.
The pigs were the property of Mr. Bowe of Glasnevin and Mr. Byrne of Dublin.
Publicity rather than reticence was the desire of those responsible for the strange doings. Mr. Diarmid or Dermot Lynch, Secretary of the Sinn Fein Food Committee, said that he accepted full responsibility in the matter, and that it was “on behalf of the city of Dublin” that a number of pigs intended for shipment to Holyhead had been commandeered. The situation in regard to pork and bacon supplies in Ireland, he described as a public scandal. Pigs were leaving Ireland by the thousand every week and no bacon could be procured in Dublin and in many other parts of the country. He added that he was prepared to have the carcasses sold at the legal maximum price. The retention of the pigs was “one Sinn Fein point gained”.
It was stated that Mr. Byrne, an owner of one of the droves of pigs, had arranged with the manager of Messrs. Donnelly’s bacon curing factory to buy the carcasses in order that they might be kept in Dublin. Mr. Lynch said that it was the intention, failing some such arrangement, to cut up the carcasses and sell the meat to the public at controlled prices. It was not the Sinn Fein intention at present to stop the export of other animals than pigs. Some Irish bacon factories in view of the difficulty in securing pig-meat and in anticipation of having to close down, have given notice of dismissal to employees.
Needless to say the curious proceedings of the afternoon were accorded the attention of a very large number of persons, but there was no demonstration or outburst of disorder. No other animals intended for export were interfered with during the day.
It was stated last night that the owners of the slaughtered pigs had been paid the governed price by the representatives of the Sinn Fein Food Committee and so to have been at no loss. When the carcasses were being taken across the city to the curing factory, they were escorted by a band of forty Sinn Feiners, carrying sticks and staves.
The Times report was re-published in the Gaelic American, March 16, 1918.
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 4/21
Charles Dalton in his book ‘With the Dublin Brigade 1917-1921’ recalled the day:
"...When I was on my way home from school one day in February 1918, I met a Volunteer belonging to my company. He told me that he had been mobilised to go to the Corporation Yard of the Cleansing Department in Portland Place. ‘There’s a job on there’ he said ‘ and any NCO’s or idle men of the battalion are required’. I was overjoyed to hear this good news. A job was on. Here was a chance for me to do something.
I turned back and went straight to the yard. Some people and a few policemen were gathered outside. I knocked at the big gates. They were opened only a crack, and I was asked what I wanted. I gave the letter of my Company and the number of my Battalion. At once, as if by magic, the gate was thrown wide open for me to enter. I walked in holding my head very high, feeling the eyes of the people outisde watching me with curiosity and envy….inside were twenty or thirty Volunteers at work. The yard was strewn with the carcasses of pigs which had been slaughterd by one of the Volunteers who was a butcher by trade. Two droves of pigs had been seized earlier in the day on their way from the market to the quay. This had been done on the order of the Sinn Fein Food Controller, Diarmuid Lynch, to stop the wholesale exportation of pigs while the curing factories at home were practically idle.
Some of the Volunteers were occupied in cleaning the carcasses, and I was given a yard brush and was told to sweep up the blood which was being hosed into a channel. I felt very superior engaged in this work of national importance.
While I was busy in this way for some reason the gates were opened, and the crowd outside could now see what was going on. ‘Ah, isnt it a terrible shame’ they exclaimed ‘to be wasting all that blood which would make such grand black puddings’…that was the first time I heard of the origin of that delicacy.
When our work was done, which had taken some hours, and the yard cleaned up, the carcases were loaded on lorries. By now a great crowd had gathered outside and women us in jugs of tea and slices of bread…it was nightfall when we emerged into the street with our cargo. We formed up in processionla order with a file of Volunteers on each side of the ‘hearses’. We marched in mournful triumph across the city to the curing factories where the bodies were handed over.
I had wondered by the large force of police which had waited outside the yard all the afternoon had made no attempt to interfere with us. In fact, I was disapointed, as we had all armed ourselves with heavy sticks. I heard afterwards that the owners of the droves refused to make a charge as they had been paid the value of the pigs by the Food Controller.* Dramatic accounts of this incident appeared in the newspapers. It gave me a feeling of elation to receive this public recognition of what was my first job..."
Charles Dalton ‘With the Dublin Brigade 1917-21’ Peter Davies Ltd, London. 1929.p 51-53
(Diarmuid Lynch later wrote in the margins of Dalton's book that in fact the value of the pigs had been paid by O’Mara, one of the bacon curing factory owners.)
William James Stapleton, Lieutenant of 'B' Company, 2nd Battalion, Dublin Brigade, and later a member of Michael Collin's 'Squad', the 'Twelve Apostles' recalled the interception of the pigs in his 1953 statement to the Bureau of Military History:
William James Stapleton, Lieutenant of 'B' Company, 2nd Battalion, Dublin Brigade, and later a member of Michael Collin's 'Squad', the 'Twelve Apostles' recalled the interception of the pigs in his 1953 statement to the Bureau of Military History:
http://www.bureauofmilitaryhistory.ie/reels/bmh/BMH.WS0822.pdf#page=24
Frank Henderson, who was Capt. 'F' Company, 2nd Batt'n. Dublin Brigade, Irish Volunteers, 1916; Comd't. same Company, 1918; Adjutant Dublin Brigade, 1921 comments on the event in his deposition:
Frank Henderson, who was Capt. 'F' Company, 2nd Batt'n. Dublin Brigade, Irish Volunteers, 1916; Comd't. same Company, 1918; Adjutant Dublin Brigade, 1921 comments on the event in his deposition:
http://www.bureauofmilitaryhistory.ie/reels/bmh/BMH.WS0821.pdf#page=18
Kevin Shiel in his Bureau of Military History deposition commented:
http://www.bureauofmilitaryhistory.ie/reels/bmh/BMH.WS1770%20Section%206.pdf#page=11
Irish Convention: Lloyd George wrote to Barrie, leader of the Ulster delegation imploring his side to seek a solution, to make concessions, hinting that Home Rule for Ireland would be merely the first step in a wider federal reform of British government.
Cincinatti: Incas, the last captive Carolina parakeet died at the Cincinnati Zoo on February 21, 1918 in the same cage as Martha,
the last passenger pigeon, which died in 1914. The species became extinct.
Cincinatti: Incas, the last captive Carolina parakeet died at the Cincinnati Zoo on February 21, 1918 in the same cage as Martha,
the last passenger pigeon, which died in 1914. The species became extinct.
23
Limerick: A leaflet distributed throughout Limerick city asked the public if they were aware that the authorities were using forcible feeding in prison, naming Dr. McGrath, MO at Limerick Prison and Dr. Irwin, resident medical superintendent at the Limerick Asylum. The Lord Mayor of Limerick publically castigated Dr McGrath while the Asylum board did likewise with their medical practitioner.
Roscommon: 33,000 trees were planted in Co. Roscommon under a scheme adopted by the County Committee. 11,000 of these trees have been planted in the Roscommon district alone. Sir T.W. Russell, with Mr T.P. Gill, of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction, received representatives from the General Council of County Councils. Headed by Mr P.J. O’Neill, the deputation appealed for replanting of the areas in Ireland denuded of timber.
24
Estonia: The Baltic state declares its independence from Russia after seven centuries of foreign rule. German forces capture Tallinn the next day.
25
Meat, Butter and Margarine rationing starts in Britain.
Cabinet approved the imposition of a ‘special military area’ regulations on Co. Clare, where the area was considered to be particularly ‘grave...it could not be much worse’.
Irish Convention:Lloyd George in a lengthy letter to Plunkett read to the Convention when it reassembled, began with a definite pledge of action. On receiving the report of the Convention the Government would "proceed with the least possible delay to submit legislative proposals to Parliament". He outlined his formula for a compromise – customs and excise remain as they are until two years after the war, a Royal Commission deciding on an appropriate settlement, there would be an increase in Unionist representation in an Irish Parliament, with an Ulster Committee empowered to modify or veto legislation ‘not consonant with the interests of Ulster’. Included in his package was a future bill to settle land purchase, and a substantial provision for resolving urban housing. His letter made a limited impression on Ulster Unionists, having stressed, that he was determined to legislate upon receipt of the Convention's report, emphasising the urgent importance of a settlement by consent, but that controversial questions would have to be deferred until after the war.
Cardinal Logue of Armagh who devotedly had hoped for some alternative to Sinn Féin, dismissed Lloyd George's letter and the suggested safeguards for Ulster as 'disguised partition'. In view of the new situation created by Lloyd George's letter, Midleton's scheme was dropped.
The various sides now gained time to reconsider and recoup, with the earlier momentum lost, committees came under the influence of outside institutions and hard-liners. Ulstermen who had been under pressure to settle, reverted to a hardline stand, without appearing to have ruined the Midleton deal. Barrie, the Unionist leader who had wavered towards doing a deal, was summonsed with his delegates to Belfast to meet their "advisory committee" and was told to hold to traditional partitionist demands.
Macardle commented on the Lloyd George letter, where he.. ‘practically cancelled the powers that he had given them and defeated the purpose for which they had been convened....he wrote ‘questions on which there is an accurate difference of opinion in Ireland and Great Britain must be held over for determination after the war.’
Dorothy Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin. 1951. p.246.
Limerick: A leaflet distributed throughout Limerick city asked the public if they were aware that the authorities were using forcible feeding in prison, naming Dr. McGrath, MO at Limerick Prison and Dr. Irwin, resident medical superintendent at the Limerick Asylum. The Lord Mayor of Limerick publically castigated Dr McGrath while the Asylum board did likewise with their medical practitioner.
Roscommon: 33,000 trees were planted in Co. Roscommon under a scheme adopted by the County Committee. 11,000 of these trees have been planted in the Roscommon district alone. Sir T.W. Russell, with Mr T.P. Gill, of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction, received representatives from the General Council of County Councils. Headed by Mr P.J. O’Neill, the deputation appealed for replanting of the areas in Ireland denuded of timber.
24
Estonia: The Baltic state declares its independence from Russia after seven centuries of foreign rule. German forces capture Tallinn the next day.
25
Meat, Butter and Margarine rationing starts in Britain.
Cabinet approved the imposition of a ‘special military area’ regulations on Co. Clare, where the area was considered to be particularly ‘grave...it could not be much worse’.
Irish Convention:Lloyd George in a lengthy letter to Plunkett read to the Convention when it reassembled, began with a definite pledge of action. On receiving the report of the Convention the Government would "proceed with the least possible delay to submit legislative proposals to Parliament". He outlined his formula for a compromise – customs and excise remain as they are until two years after the war, a Royal Commission deciding on an appropriate settlement, there would be an increase in Unionist representation in an Irish Parliament, with an Ulster Committee empowered to modify or veto legislation ‘not consonant with the interests of Ulster’. Included in his package was a future bill to settle land purchase, and a substantial provision for resolving urban housing. His letter made a limited impression on Ulster Unionists, having stressed, that he was determined to legislate upon receipt of the Convention's report, emphasising the urgent importance of a settlement by consent, but that controversial questions would have to be deferred until after the war.
Cardinal Logue of Armagh who devotedly had hoped for some alternative to Sinn Féin, dismissed Lloyd George's letter and the suggested safeguards for Ulster as 'disguised partition'. In view of the new situation created by Lloyd George's letter, Midleton's scheme was dropped.
The various sides now gained time to reconsider and recoup, with the earlier momentum lost, committees came under the influence of outside institutions and hard-liners. Ulstermen who had been under pressure to settle, reverted to a hardline stand, without appearing to have ruined the Midleton deal. Barrie, the Unionist leader who had wavered towards doing a deal, was summonsed with his delegates to Belfast to meet their "advisory committee" and was told to hold to traditional partitionist demands.
Macardle commented on the Lloyd George letter, where he.. ‘practically cancelled the powers that he had given them and defeated the purpose for which they had been convened....he wrote ‘questions on which there is an accurate difference of opinion in Ireland and Great Britain must be held over for determination after the war.’
Dorothy Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin. 1951. p.246.
Appearing in the Gaeity for six nights and matinees from Monday, 25 February 1918 was the play 'Damaged Goods' by Brieux. The poster warned that the play was 'For Adults Only' and the subject matter was 'the great social evil' but a progressive step for the times. . So what was 'Damaged Goods'?
In 1913, the New York theatre world was electrified with the presentation of Eugène Brieux’s play. While Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts, had referenced sexually transmitted disease, Brieux’s plot featured a main character wrestling with the physical and social ramifications of syphilis after an ill-chosen affair. As with so many of his works, Brieux intended the characters in Damaged Goods to point out social injustice — in this case, the way syphilis could be spread to innocent spouses and children — but the only heroes in the story remain solely the men who also pose the greatest threat. The syphilis bacteria isn’t the real pathogen in the story. Instead, the real threat stems from how the male characters use their intelligence, rendering the women helpless carriers of the disease. The play and the publicity surrounding the piece cast women to the sidelines, but the actual history of the production places women in far more active roles.
Brieux, known as a moralizing playwright in his home country of France, found great fame in the United States for his revolutionary, open discussion of issues such as venereal disease, motherhood, and divorce. Though he was passionate about the plight of women, sometimes describing them as living in slave-like conditions, his works nonetheless rarely featured women who take action or make decisions. In this story, men become the force of reason to try to bring a stop to syphilis through a careful understanding of how the disease spreads, treatment options, and the necessity of ignoring societal pressures in order to face syphilis head on. The way the story is crafted, however, makes men the agents of change, the sole actors on society’s stage to change. The publicity surrounding the play reinforces the notion that men must be the activists against venereal disease, with Brieux and Bennett taking the spotlight as the primary storytellers. Even at the time, medical professionals and activists rejected the idea that women couldn’t be in control of their own sexual health. The Sociological Fund, one of the original supporters of the play, heartily affirmed that women had to be active in maintaining their own sexual health, and the Fund believed that women’s rights would lead to a decline in venereal disease. While women might not have the most prominent role in Damaged Goods, the play stands at the moment in history when women began to take a more active role in their sexual health.
(Thanks to Alicia Corts. http://notchesblog.com/2016/07/21/syphilis-onstage-eugene-brieuxs-damaged-goods)
For a copy of the play - click here.
In 1913, the New York theatre world was electrified with the presentation of Eugène Brieux’s play. While Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts, had referenced sexually transmitted disease, Brieux’s plot featured a main character wrestling with the physical and social ramifications of syphilis after an ill-chosen affair. As with so many of his works, Brieux intended the characters in Damaged Goods to point out social injustice — in this case, the way syphilis could be spread to innocent spouses and children — but the only heroes in the story remain solely the men who also pose the greatest threat. The syphilis bacteria isn’t the real pathogen in the story. Instead, the real threat stems from how the male characters use their intelligence, rendering the women helpless carriers of the disease. The play and the publicity surrounding the piece cast women to the sidelines, but the actual history of the production places women in far more active roles.
Brieux, known as a moralizing playwright in his home country of France, found great fame in the United States for his revolutionary, open discussion of issues such as venereal disease, motherhood, and divorce. Though he was passionate about the plight of women, sometimes describing them as living in slave-like conditions, his works nonetheless rarely featured women who take action or make decisions. In this story, men become the force of reason to try to bring a stop to syphilis through a careful understanding of how the disease spreads, treatment options, and the necessity of ignoring societal pressures in order to face syphilis head on. The way the story is crafted, however, makes men the agents of change, the sole actors on society’s stage to change. The publicity surrounding the play reinforces the notion that men must be the activists against venereal disease, with Brieux and Bennett taking the spotlight as the primary storytellers. Even at the time, medical professionals and activists rejected the idea that women couldn’t be in control of their own sexual health. The Sociological Fund, one of the original supporters of the play, heartily affirmed that women had to be active in maintaining their own sexual health, and the Fund believed that women’s rights would lead to a decline in venereal disease. While women might not have the most prominent role in Damaged Goods, the play stands at the moment in history when women began to take a more active role in their sexual health.
(Thanks to Alicia Corts. http://notchesblog.com/2016/07/21/syphilis-onstage-eugene-brieuxs-damaged-goods)
For a copy of the play - click here.
Memories of Mountjoy is a small volume by Seán Milroy published in February 1917 (previously serialised in the Hibernian in 1915) recounts his experiences over four months at Mountjoy Prison in the early summer of 1915, where he was confined at the ‘pressing invitation of dear old General Friend’. Milroy’s fellow prisoners at Mountjoy included Seán McDermott, Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, Sean Hegarty and Liam Mellowes, though none of these feature significantly in the pages of his book.
As one reviewer noted at the time, Mr Milroy is at a disadvantage in that he is ‘neither a master of irony nor even a good hater. On his sternest fits of cold fury cheerfulness comes breaking in, and though he tells himself he does well to be angry he cannot maintain the pose for long."
Milroy wrote "my brief experience in Mountjoy is not an isolated incident but just one link in the chain of criminal degradation with which England has sought to shackle and overpower the Irish nation." William Murphy in 'Political Imprisonment and the Irish 1919-1921' comments on Milroy's statement that 'in this way the political prisoners becomes a metaphor for the nation. The legitimacy of the prisoner's cause is denied by refusing him political status just as the legitimacy of the Irish nation is denied by the refusal of independence'
As one reviewer noted at the time, Mr Milroy is at a disadvantage in that he is ‘neither a master of irony nor even a good hater. On his sternest fits of cold fury cheerfulness comes breaking in, and though he tells himself he does well to be angry he cannot maintain the pose for long."
Milroy wrote "my brief experience in Mountjoy is not an isolated incident but just one link in the chain of criminal degradation with which England has sought to shackle and overpower the Irish nation." William Murphy in 'Political Imprisonment and the Irish 1919-1921' comments on Milroy's statement that 'in this way the political prisoners becomes a metaphor for the nation. The legitimacy of the prisoner's cause is denied by refusing him political status just as the legitimacy of the Irish nation is denied by the refusal of independence'
Prisoners released from Cork Gaol.
Three prisoners who had been on hunger strike at Cork Gaol were released under the terms of the ‘Cat and Mouse’ Act.
The men from Charleville – John Hickey, John Cronin and Cornelius McCarthy – were arrested for offences against public order. They were imprisoned in the county gaol, where they immediately went on hunger strike. They were moved to the South Infirmary, where hospital staff confirmed that the men’s lives were in ‘grave danger’ but refused to accept any further responsibility in the matter. The initial analysis of the men’s condition was provided by doctors to the Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Butterfield, who, in a telegram earlier to Mr Duke, the Chief Secretary, had strongly urged their release. Mr Duke, in response stated that physical disability arising from a willful decision to refuse food was not a basis for releasing any prisoner.
This response follows comments made by Mr Duke in the House of Commons on the practice of force-feeding. He said that there were a number of prisoners in Ireland at the present time with either the ‘pretence or intention of exposing themselves to the peril of starvation’ that might result in their ‘suicidal death’. As suicide is a crime, the Executive is intent on using ‘every practical means to prevent’ it. Reacting to Mr Duke’s contribution to the House of Commons, The Irish Times remarked that it failed to accurately convey the reality of the Irish situation.
‘The truth is that the law has ceased to exist in Ireland, and that its disappearance is largely due to that hunger-striking which Mr Duke discusses with academic detachment. A well-organised conspiracy to reduce the country to anarchy is in full swing. Agrarian and other outrages are reported in daily batches of five or six. Nobody is punished.’
Three prisoners who had been on hunger strike at Cork Gaol were released under the terms of the ‘Cat and Mouse’ Act.
The men from Charleville – John Hickey, John Cronin and Cornelius McCarthy – were arrested for offences against public order. They were imprisoned in the county gaol, where they immediately went on hunger strike. They were moved to the South Infirmary, where hospital staff confirmed that the men’s lives were in ‘grave danger’ but refused to accept any further responsibility in the matter. The initial analysis of the men’s condition was provided by doctors to the Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Butterfield, who, in a telegram earlier to Mr Duke, the Chief Secretary, had strongly urged their release. Mr Duke, in response stated that physical disability arising from a willful decision to refuse food was not a basis for releasing any prisoner.
This response follows comments made by Mr Duke in the House of Commons on the practice of force-feeding. He said that there were a number of prisoners in Ireland at the present time with either the ‘pretence or intention of exposing themselves to the peril of starvation’ that might result in their ‘suicidal death’. As suicide is a crime, the Executive is intent on using ‘every practical means to prevent’ it. Reacting to Mr Duke’s contribution to the House of Commons, The Irish Times remarked that it failed to accurately convey the reality of the Irish situation.
‘The truth is that the law has ceased to exist in Ireland, and that its disappearance is largely due to that hunger-striking which Mr Duke discusses with academic detachment. A well-organised conspiracy to reduce the country to anarchy is in full swing. Agrarian and other outrages are reported in daily batches of five or six. Nobody is punished.’
26
Hong Kong. Stands at Hong Kong Happy Valley Jockey Club collapse and burn, killing 604
27
Clare: The county was proclaimed a ‘special military area’, troops were sent in, censorship imposed and passports were issued or refused to all persons entering the county. Fairs and markets were banned and public houses strictly regulated.
Both Lawrence Ginnell, the former Irish Parliamentary Party MP and De Valera were followed and monitored throughout the country by the R.I.C. ‘De Valera, growing steadily more militant, was active in Roscommon and Donegal; he called on his hearers whom the police described as ‘half-educated shop assistants and excitable young rustics’ - to join the Sinn Fein Clubs and the Volunteers in order to fight conscription and divide the land. Physical force, he said at Castlefin, had defeated the tithe laws and wrested the Land Acts from England; and at Ballybofey, he spoke of a national army of Volunteers, drilled and armed as to strike when the opportunity came, as it would soon...’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p269.
From this, we can gather that the Volunteers (later to become known as the Irish Republican Army) were organising to fight on two fronts - for land redistribution and against conscription.
"Ireland has been infected by the anarchy of Bolshevism’, the Irish Times claimed on this date.
The newspaper devoted an editorial to the evils of Bolshevism and how, through the Sinn Féin movement, it has taken root in Ireland and is destroying a country that has heretofore been ‘conservative ... by instinct, tradition, and creed’. The publication of the editorial follows reports from a meeting of the Rathmines and Rathgar Sinn Féin Club where, with Dr Kathleen Lynn presiding, speeches were delivered in praise of the Bolshevik example.
One of the speakers, Countess Markievicz, declared that she was in favour of the republic envisioned by James Connolly, a kind of co-operative or socialist republic. However, the countess denied that such an aspiration was revolutionary; rather it was more like ‘evolution’. Not so, according to the Irish Times, which has accused Sinn Féin of both espousing ‘crude theories of Republicanism’ to appeal to the ‘greed and jealousy of the poorer classes’ and of elevating ‘barren hatred’ to the dignity of patriotism.
The newspaper sees evidence of Bolshevik influence everywhere: in the practice of the hunger-strike, that apparently owes less to the recent example of women suffragists than to a ‘Leninite theory of passive resistance’; in the raids for arms; in the seizure of land ‘in the name of the Irish Republic’; and in the ‘widespread contempt not only for law, but for decency’ that didn’t exist in Ireland before.
Dublin: Ireland’s national school teachers announced they were to hold a referendum on the question of a withdrawal of services from schools throughout the country.
The announcement of a vote followed the refusal of the Chief Secretary, Mr Duke, to fix a date for receiving a All-Ireland deputation which was proposed by the Lord Mayor of Dublin six weeks previously.
A statement from the central executive of the Irish National Teachers’ Association read:
‘The delay in making arrangements for the reception of the deputation, coupled with the feverish haste on the part of the education office to put the White Paper proposals into operation, have forced us to the conclusion that it is the deliberate intention of the Government to make the demand for the suspension of these proposals impossible of concession by taking care that they have been put into operation before the deputation is received....The wishes not only of the teachers but of the whole Irish people, regarding a question which concerns the vital interests of the country, are thus being deliberately flouted, and we cannot help expressing our surprise that though the new session of Parliament is now a fortnight old, no attempt has been made by any party to give expression in Parliament to the volume of feeling which has been created regarding the Government’s treatment of Irish education.’
Devoting an editorial on the matter, the Irish Independent acknowledged the ‘natural surprise’ of Ireland’s teachers at the failure of Irish representatives in the House of Common to impress upon the Government the seriousness of the situation. ‘Had the Irish members done their duty in this matter the present crisis might not have arisen.’
For an more in depth article "Classroom Bolsheviks - Pay, Politics & Ireland’s National Teachers by Niamh Puirséil" click here.
British hospital ship 'Glenart Castle' is sunk by a U-Boat in the Bristol Channel killing 162.
The announcement of a vote followed the refusal of the Chief Secretary, Mr Duke, to fix a date for receiving a All-Ireland deputation which was proposed by the Lord Mayor of Dublin six weeks previously.
A statement from the central executive of the Irish National Teachers’ Association read:
‘The delay in making arrangements for the reception of the deputation, coupled with the feverish haste on the part of the education office to put the White Paper proposals into operation, have forced us to the conclusion that it is the deliberate intention of the Government to make the demand for the suspension of these proposals impossible of concession by taking care that they have been put into operation before the deputation is received....The wishes not only of the teachers but of the whole Irish people, regarding a question which concerns the vital interests of the country, are thus being deliberately flouted, and we cannot help expressing our surprise that though the new session of Parliament is now a fortnight old, no attempt has been made by any party to give expression in Parliament to the volume of feeling which has been created regarding the Government’s treatment of Irish education.’
Devoting an editorial on the matter, the Irish Independent acknowledged the ‘natural surprise’ of Ireland’s teachers at the failure of Irish representatives in the House of Common to impress upon the Government the seriousness of the situation. ‘Had the Irish members done their duty in this matter the present crisis might not have arisen.’
For an more in depth article "Classroom Bolsheviks - Pay, Politics & Ireland’s National Teachers by Niamh Puirséil" click here.
British hospital ship 'Glenart Castle' is sunk by a U-Boat in the Bristol Channel killing 162.
28
The Daily Express headlined 'Hunger-Strike Mania' and stated that the hunger strike 'threatens to complete the paralysis of every law which stands between the respectable Irish citizen and Russian anarchy'. The authorities were now considering internment in Britain as the only possible solution.
The Chicago Times carries the Irish news on it's front page: "Irish Unrest Fast Growing into Anarchy" (click images to enlarge)
The Daily Express headlined 'Hunger-Strike Mania' and stated that the hunger strike 'threatens to complete the paralysis of every law which stands between the respectable Irish citizen and Russian anarchy'. The authorities were now considering internment in Britain as the only possible solution.
The Chicago Times carries the Irish news on it's front page: "Irish Unrest Fast Growing into Anarchy" (click images to enlarge)
1
Antrim: Imperial German Navy U-boat SM U-19 sinks HMS Calgarian off Rathlin Island.
New York: the Telemachus episode of James Joyce's Ulysses is published (in serialised form) in the American journal The Little Review. The magazine serialised James Ulysses starting in 1918. The Little Review continued to publish Ulysses until 1921 when the Post Office seized copies of the magazine and refused to distribute them on the grounds that Joyce's work constituted obscene material. As a result, the magazine and it's owner Margaret Anderson went to trial over the alleged questionable content. John Quinn*, a lawyer and well-known patron of modernist art, defended them at the trial, ultimately losing. The editors paid a token fifty-dollar fine each as result of the judgement. Read more on Joyce's Ulysses here.
* John Quinn was involved with the Gaelic League visit of Douglas Hyde in 1905-06 and connected with Diarmuid Lynch through the League and Friends of Irish Freedom. See the Gaelic League fundraising article here for more details.
Antrim: Imperial German Navy U-boat SM U-19 sinks HMS Calgarian off Rathlin Island.
New York: the Telemachus episode of James Joyce's Ulysses is published (in serialised form) in the American journal The Little Review. The magazine serialised James Ulysses starting in 1918. The Little Review continued to publish Ulysses until 1921 when the Post Office seized copies of the magazine and refused to distribute them on the grounds that Joyce's work constituted obscene material. As a result, the magazine and it's owner Margaret Anderson went to trial over the alleged questionable content. John Quinn*, a lawyer and well-known patron of modernist art, defended them at the trial, ultimately losing. The editors paid a token fifty-dollar fine each as result of the judgement. Read more on Joyce's Ulysses here.
* John Quinn was involved with the Gaelic League visit of Douglas Hyde in 1905-06 and connected with Diarmuid Lynch through the League and Friends of Irish Freedom. See the Gaelic League fundraising article here for more details.
London: War artist C. R. W. Nevinson opens an exhibition at the Leicester Galleries in London. His war painting "Paths of Glory", was immediately condemned by the British Army censor for its depiction of dead soldiers, and is displayed by the artist with a brown paper strip across the bodies bearing the word "Censored" and subsequently replaced in the exhibition by a painting of a tank. The title quotes from a line from Thomas Gray's poem 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard': "The paths of glory lead but to the grave". It is held by the Imperial War Museum in London, which describes it as "one of Nevinson's most famous paintings". More details here.
London: War artist C. R. W. Nevinson opens an exhibition at the Leicester Galleries in London. His war painting "Paths of Glory", was immediately condemned by the British Army censor for its depiction of dead soldiers, and is displayed by the artist with a brown paper strip across the bodies bearing the word "Censored" and subsequently replaced in the exhibition by a painting of a tank. The title quotes from a line from Thomas Gray's poem 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard': "The paths of glory lead but to the grave". It is held by the Imperial War Museum in London, which describes it as "one of Nevinson's most famous paintings". More details here.
When exhibited for the first time in London, Dead Germans in a Trench caused surprise to a public and critics familiar with the destruction of the First World War. “Mr Orpen is certainly not a sentimentalist; he seems to paint [the corpses] with cold, serene skill, just as he might paint a bunch of flowers,” wrote The Times. The newspaper also noted that though images of dead British soldiers by Nevinson had been suppressed, Dead Germans in a Trench had been passed for exhibition, causing the cynical quip “[the Censor’s] aim being apparently to persuade us that only Germans die in this war”.
In the section 'Raids for Arms' in the Daily Telegraph above, mention is made of Martin Corry.
Martin John Corry (1889 – 1979) was a farmer and long-serving backbench Teachta Dála (TD) for Fianna Fáil. He represented various County Cork constituencies covering his farm near Glounthaune, east of Cork city. He was described by Michael Leahy, his IRA commandant as the Cork No 1 Brigade's 'Chief Executioner' and is believed to have been responsible for at least 27 killings, mostly in the neighbouring parish of Knockraha. It was reported that Corry's farm had been the suspected site of the execution and burial place of several people considered to be pro-British agents, spies, or informers. Among these was Michael Williams, an ex-Royal Irish Constabulary officer abducted by the IRA "Irregulars" on 15 June 1922 for his alleged role in the shooting dead in 1920 of Tomás Mac Curtain, the Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Cork. Corry went on to become a founder member of Fianna Fáil in 1926, and among its first TDs after the June 1927 general election. He was returned at every election until he stood down at the 1969 election. Corry was active in farming issues, serving as Chairman of the Beet Growers' Association in the 1950s. In 1966, upon the resignation of Seán Lemass as Fianna Fáil leader and Taoiseach, Corry was among the Munster-based TDs who approached Jack Lynch to be a compromise candidate for the party leadership. |
2
Dublin: The Irish Volunteers Headquarters Staff forbade Volunteers taking part in cattle drives or dividing land into connacre, to
‘act in their capacity as Volunteers ....as ‘these operations are neither of a national or military character’. By the same order, Volunteers were strictly forbidden to raid private houses for guns. They had resorted to such raiding in some localities in their anxiety to secure arms.’
Dorothy Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin. 1951. p.241
Twelve Republican prisoners came off their hunger strike in Mountjoy prison.
Skibbereen: Ernest Blythe is arrested for non-compliance with a military rule directing him to reside in Ulster.
Kiev: German forces capture the Russian city.
Cork: The SS Kenmare, part of the fleet of the Cork Steampacket Company, was sunk without warning by a U-boat. Of the crew of 35, only six were saved. The vessel was en route from Liverpool to Cork with most of the crew asleep. It sank in less than two minutes. On learning of the disaster, the families of the various crew members made their way to the offices of the Cork Steampacket Company where "there were scenes of heartbreak and human desolation."
The attack gave rise to concerns for the viability of Irish shipping. ‘Our few ships are being sunk apparently with impunity’, the Irish Independent editorialised, adding that ‘if this goes on much longer there will be no shipping left in the Irish sea.’
SAVED
W. Evans, mate. Tany Boyn, New Quay, Cardigan
James Barry, donkeyman, aged 72 years, 102 Lower Road, Cork
Tim O’Brien fireman, aged 30 years, 8 Green Lane, Liverpool
A. Phillips, carpenter, aged 28 years, 33 Hood Lane, Liverpool
James Wright, steward, aged 47 years, 13 Springmount Place, Dillon’s Cross, Cork
J. Broughman, gunner, aged 20 years
LOST
Capt. P. Blacklock, master (married), 9. Park View, Victoria Road, Cork
R. Johnstone, 2nd mate, 1 Grattan Hill, Cork
Thomas Murphy, 1st engineer (married), 37 Oriel, Bootle, Liverpool
L. Ogle, 2nd engineer, 10 Kenilworth Street, Bootle, Liverpool
A. Shaw, 3rd engineer, 36 Woodbine Road, Tartown, Huddersfield
J. Keenan, greaser (married), 138 Barrackton, Cork
P. Corcoran, greaser (married), 3 Clahane cottages, Lower Road, Cork
W. Lyons, fireman, 18 Dillon’s Cross, St Lukes, Cork
J. Driscoll, fireman, 24 Tower Street, Cork
Michael Coleman, fireman (married), Gt. Wm. O’Brien Street, Cork
Jas. Fitzgerald, trimmer, 274 Old Youghal Road, Cork
Michael Ahern, trimmer. 7 Glen View, Dillon’s Cross, Cork
R. McLoughlin, A.B. Vennel Street, Glenarm, Antrim
John O'Keefe, A.B. Ballinure, Blacklock, Cork
Jeff Grant, Q.M., 8 Victoria Road, Cork
S. Bowen, Q.M., 4 Harrington Row, Cork
M. Dulea, A.B. (married). 61 Dominick Street, Cork
P. Fennesy, A.B. (married), 51 Hibernian Buildings, Cork
P. McCarthy, A.B., Langford Place, Cork
W. Moore, A.B., (married), 7 Corporation Buildings, Cork
J. Good, A.B., 8 Fort Street, Cork
O. Kemp, Cook, 9 Boreenmana Road, Cork
A. E. Aston, gunner
R. Macaulay, gunner
E. McNamara, cattleman, Walsh’s Avenue, Blackpool, Cork
D. Sullivan, cattleman, Spring Lane, Blackpool, Cork
W. Hartnett, cattleman, 56 Watercourse Road, Cork
The Kenmare was torpedoed by U104 under the command of Kptlt. Kurt Bernis. This U boat was sunk by depth charging by the HMS Jessamine on 25 April 1918 in the Irish Sea. (For more information, check the Macauley-Kenmare Bloggspot.)
Dublin: The Irish Volunteers Headquarters Staff forbade Volunteers taking part in cattle drives or dividing land into connacre, to
‘act in their capacity as Volunteers ....as ‘these operations are neither of a national or military character’. By the same order, Volunteers were strictly forbidden to raid private houses for guns. They had resorted to such raiding in some localities in their anxiety to secure arms.’
Dorothy Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin. 1951. p.241
Twelve Republican prisoners came off their hunger strike in Mountjoy prison.
Skibbereen: Ernest Blythe is arrested for non-compliance with a military rule directing him to reside in Ulster.
Kiev: German forces capture the Russian city.
Cork: The SS Kenmare, part of the fleet of the Cork Steampacket Company, was sunk without warning by a U-boat. Of the crew of 35, only six were saved. The vessel was en route from Liverpool to Cork with most of the crew asleep. It sank in less than two minutes. On learning of the disaster, the families of the various crew members made their way to the offices of the Cork Steampacket Company where "there were scenes of heartbreak and human desolation."
The attack gave rise to concerns for the viability of Irish shipping. ‘Our few ships are being sunk apparently with impunity’, the Irish Independent editorialised, adding that ‘if this goes on much longer there will be no shipping left in the Irish sea.’
SAVED
W. Evans, mate. Tany Boyn, New Quay, Cardigan
James Barry, donkeyman, aged 72 years, 102 Lower Road, Cork
Tim O’Brien fireman, aged 30 years, 8 Green Lane, Liverpool
A. Phillips, carpenter, aged 28 years, 33 Hood Lane, Liverpool
James Wright, steward, aged 47 years, 13 Springmount Place, Dillon’s Cross, Cork
J. Broughman, gunner, aged 20 years
LOST
Capt. P. Blacklock, master (married), 9. Park View, Victoria Road, Cork
R. Johnstone, 2nd mate, 1 Grattan Hill, Cork
Thomas Murphy, 1st engineer (married), 37 Oriel, Bootle, Liverpool
L. Ogle, 2nd engineer, 10 Kenilworth Street, Bootle, Liverpool
A. Shaw, 3rd engineer, 36 Woodbine Road, Tartown, Huddersfield
J. Keenan, greaser (married), 138 Barrackton, Cork
P. Corcoran, greaser (married), 3 Clahane cottages, Lower Road, Cork
W. Lyons, fireman, 18 Dillon’s Cross, St Lukes, Cork
J. Driscoll, fireman, 24 Tower Street, Cork
Michael Coleman, fireman (married), Gt. Wm. O’Brien Street, Cork
Jas. Fitzgerald, trimmer, 274 Old Youghal Road, Cork
Michael Ahern, trimmer. 7 Glen View, Dillon’s Cross, Cork
R. McLoughlin, A.B. Vennel Street, Glenarm, Antrim
John O'Keefe, A.B. Ballinure, Blacklock, Cork
Jeff Grant, Q.M., 8 Victoria Road, Cork
S. Bowen, Q.M., 4 Harrington Row, Cork
M. Dulea, A.B. (married). 61 Dominick Street, Cork
P. Fennesy, A.B. (married), 51 Hibernian Buildings, Cork
P. McCarthy, A.B., Langford Place, Cork
W. Moore, A.B., (married), 7 Corporation Buildings, Cork
J. Good, A.B., 8 Fort Street, Cork
O. Kemp, Cook, 9 Boreenmana Road, Cork
A. E. Aston, gunner
R. Macaulay, gunner
E. McNamara, cattleman, Walsh’s Avenue, Blackpool, Cork
D. Sullivan, cattleman, Spring Lane, Blackpool, Cork
W. Hartnett, cattleman, 56 Watercourse Road, Cork
The Kenmare was torpedoed by U104 under the command of Kptlt. Kurt Bernis. This U boat was sunk by depth charging by the HMS Jessamine on 25 April 1918 in the Irish Sea. (For more information, check the Macauley-Kenmare Bloggspot.)
3
Co. Down: Peter O'Sullevan, horseracing commentator born. He was the BBC's leading horse racing commentator from 1947 to 1997, during which time he described some of the greatest moments in the history of Britain's most popular race, the Grand National. (Died 2015)
Brest-Litovsk: The Central Powers and Bolshevist Russia sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, ending Russia's involvement in the war.
(In the treaty, Bolshevik Russia ceded the Baltic States to Germany; they were meant to become German vassal states under German princelings. Russia also ceded its province of Kars Oblast in the South Caucasus to the Ottoman Empire and recognized the independence of Ukraine. According to Spencer Tucker, a historian of World War I, "The German General Staff had formulated extraordinarily harsh terms that shocked even the German negotiator." Congress Poland was not mentioned in the treaty, as Germans refused to recognize the existence of any Polish representatives, which in turn led to Polish protests. When Germans later complained that the Treaty of Versailles of 1919 was too harsh on them, the Allies (and historians favorable to the Allies) responded that it was more benign than Brest-Litovsk. The treaty was effectively terminated in November 1918, when Germany surrendered to the Allies. However, in the meantime, it did provide some relief to the Bolsheviks, already fighting the Russian Civil War, by the renunciation of Russia's claims on modern-day Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Ukraine and Lithuania.)
Co. Down: Peter O'Sullevan, horseracing commentator born. He was the BBC's leading horse racing commentator from 1947 to 1997, during which time he described some of the greatest moments in the history of Britain's most popular race, the Grand National. (Died 2015)
Brest-Litovsk: The Central Powers and Bolshevist Russia sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, ending Russia's involvement in the war.
(In the treaty, Bolshevik Russia ceded the Baltic States to Germany; they were meant to become German vassal states under German princelings. Russia also ceded its province of Kars Oblast in the South Caucasus to the Ottoman Empire and recognized the independence of Ukraine. According to Spencer Tucker, a historian of World War I, "The German General Staff had formulated extraordinarily harsh terms that shocked even the German negotiator." Congress Poland was not mentioned in the treaty, as Germans refused to recognize the existence of any Polish representatives, which in turn led to Polish protests. When Germans later complained that the Treaty of Versailles of 1919 was too harsh on them, the Allies (and historians favorable to the Allies) responded that it was more benign than Brest-Litovsk. The treaty was effectively terminated in November 1918, when Germany surrendered to the Allies. However, in the meantime, it did provide some relief to the Bolsheviks, already fighting the Russian Civil War, by the renunciation of Russia's claims on modern-day Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Ukraine and Lithuania.)
German Ace painted a Star of David on his aircraft just to annoy Herman Goering.
German air ace, Leutnant Adolf Auer's commanding officer in 1917-18 was a certain Hermann Goering. After one sortie in early March 1918, Goering made anti-semitic remarks to Auer's wingman, Willi Rosenstien which incensed Auer. In revenge, the Star of David was painted on the side of his Fokker biplane for Goering to see. (opposite).
Goering went on to became an early member of the Nazi party and one the most prominent leaders in the Third Reich. Chief of the Luftwaffe, he was one of the architects of the Holocaust in the Second World War, ordering a high-ranking Nazi official to organise the solution to the 'Jewish Question'.
Willy Rosenstein emigrated to South Africa as the Third Reich rose to power in the 1930s. Despite being a WWI flying ace - claiming nine British kills - he and his family didn't feel safe in Nazi Germany and fled. In a cruel twist, his son Ernest Rosenstein became a pilot with the South African Air Force and was killed in action while fighting for the Allies in 1945. Lt. Auer was shot down in October 1918 and captured. He later saw service during World War 2 with the Luftwaffe.
German air ace, Leutnant Adolf Auer's commanding officer in 1917-18 was a certain Hermann Goering. After one sortie in early March 1918, Goering made anti-semitic remarks to Auer's wingman, Willi Rosenstien which incensed Auer. In revenge, the Star of David was painted on the side of his Fokker biplane for Goering to see. (opposite).
Goering went on to became an early member of the Nazi party and one the most prominent leaders in the Third Reich. Chief of the Luftwaffe, he was one of the architects of the Holocaust in the Second World War, ordering a high-ranking Nazi official to organise the solution to the 'Jewish Question'.
Willy Rosenstein emigrated to South Africa as the Third Reich rose to power in the 1930s. Despite being a WWI flying ace - claiming nine British kills - he and his family didn't feel safe in Nazi Germany and fled. In a cruel twist, his son Ernest Rosenstein became a pilot with the South African Air Force and was killed in action while fighting for the Allies in 1945. Lt. Auer was shot down in October 1918 and captured. He later saw service during World War 2 with the Luftwaffe.
4
Irish Convention: Midleton was now undermined by hardliners who formed a "Southern Unionist Committee", publishing a 'Call to Unionists' which reinforced a fundamentalist line. With 22 signatories to a lengthy manifesto, the aims of which were distilled into four key policy areas:
1. The enforcement of the ordinary law with firmness, justice and impartiality.
2. The development of the natural resources of Ireland, and the promotion of commerce, industry and agriculture.
3. The completion of land purchase, as land agitation was the lever upon which the home rule movement agitation was based.
4. The obligation and burdens of the war, already imposed on the rest of the United Kingdom, should be shared by Ireland.
The empire, the signatories claimed, was passing through the ‘most momentous crisis in its history’ and where Ireland was in a ‘state of anarchy’. It was these specific and dangerous circumstances that required Irish unionists to speak out and defend the legislative union between Great Britain and Ireland. The signatories looked askance at the make-up of the revolutionary movement, consisting of ‘the younger and more irresponsible members of the community (including a large number of the younger Roman Catholic clergy), whose ideas and methods are exemplified by the forcible appropriation of the private property of their neighbours, and defiance of all laws’.
Hardly surprisingly, the manifesto did not receive universal support. The Irish Times, the organ of southern unionist opinion, described it as unnecessary as ‘no Southern Unionist requires to be told that the Act of Union, decently administered, would be the best form of Government for Ireland’. The Irish Independent described it as the ‘production of men who forget nothing and who learn nothing... The point that four-fifths of the country demand full self-government for Ireland is in their eyes of no significance.’
The manifesto and its signatories had been given a more sympathetic hearing in the Belfast Newsletter, which stated that it expressed ‘with great force and clearness the principles which were held by the whole Unionist party until after the Home Rule Act was forced on the Statute book’. The Newsletter pointed out, however, that the war had changed much and warned the government against imposing a settlement in ignorance of the convictions of any section of the Irish people. In deciding on what action to take, the Government needed to take account of four essential facts, the Newsletter asserted:
‘Ulster stands where it did, the Unionists of the South and West adhere to their principles, the Sinn Féiners are the dominant Nationalist faction, and the Redmondites, so far as they differ from them, are a dwindling minority. The choice for it, and for all practical politicians, lies between Union and Separation, and any compromise, whether recommended by the Convention or devised by the Government, can only be temporary, and may be disastrous.’
There had been but one way open for Redmond to preserve the future of the nationalist party. This was any scheme which would set up a body clearly labelled "Irish parliament" embracing representatives from all thirty–two counties. Redmond therefore acted properly by supporting the 'Midleton Plan'. Were it not for the O'Donnell-Devlin revolt there was a fair chance for realisation of the scheme. Had they not revolted but instead led Nationalists, Southern Unionists, labour delegates and perhaps the odd independent-minded Ulstermen, Lloyd George might just have enacted the Midleton scheme. Midleton had influential political connections in England, his scheme backed by Lord Northcliffe (the press baron who had helped topple Asquith) and his organisation. Northcliffe was in a position to transform the Nationalist-Southern-Unionist agreement into practical politics at Downing Street. It was of necessity for the party to grasp this last chance of survival, which manifestly did not apply to the church.
The question of O'Donnell the ecclesiastic and O'Donnell the politician are difficult to distinguish, whatever responsibility for the failure of the Convention he bears seem to lie with his ecclesiastic role. The bishops made plain their opposition to a Swiss federal system, under which Ulster would be a kind of Protestant canton, and O'Donnell went to great length to frame a scheme that would exclude any provincial autonomy, which exposed a basic nationalist misunderstanding of Ulster. The ethos of Ulster Presbyterianism is really very democratic, though it would have been most difficult to convince the average Irish Catholic of the time of that fact. Ulster's objection to Home Rule had always been that it would set up not a democratic, but a theocratic state.
Irish Convention: Midleton was now undermined by hardliners who formed a "Southern Unionist Committee", publishing a 'Call to Unionists' which reinforced a fundamentalist line. With 22 signatories to a lengthy manifesto, the aims of which were distilled into four key policy areas:
1. The enforcement of the ordinary law with firmness, justice and impartiality.
2. The development of the natural resources of Ireland, and the promotion of commerce, industry and agriculture.
3. The completion of land purchase, as land agitation was the lever upon which the home rule movement agitation was based.
4. The obligation and burdens of the war, already imposed on the rest of the United Kingdom, should be shared by Ireland.
The empire, the signatories claimed, was passing through the ‘most momentous crisis in its history’ and where Ireland was in a ‘state of anarchy’. It was these specific and dangerous circumstances that required Irish unionists to speak out and defend the legislative union between Great Britain and Ireland. The signatories looked askance at the make-up of the revolutionary movement, consisting of ‘the younger and more irresponsible members of the community (including a large number of the younger Roman Catholic clergy), whose ideas and methods are exemplified by the forcible appropriation of the private property of their neighbours, and defiance of all laws’.
Hardly surprisingly, the manifesto did not receive universal support. The Irish Times, the organ of southern unionist opinion, described it as unnecessary as ‘no Southern Unionist requires to be told that the Act of Union, decently administered, would be the best form of Government for Ireland’. The Irish Independent described it as the ‘production of men who forget nothing and who learn nothing... The point that four-fifths of the country demand full self-government for Ireland is in their eyes of no significance.’
The manifesto and its signatories had been given a more sympathetic hearing in the Belfast Newsletter, which stated that it expressed ‘with great force and clearness the principles which were held by the whole Unionist party until after the Home Rule Act was forced on the Statute book’. The Newsletter pointed out, however, that the war had changed much and warned the government against imposing a settlement in ignorance of the convictions of any section of the Irish people. In deciding on what action to take, the Government needed to take account of four essential facts, the Newsletter asserted:
‘Ulster stands where it did, the Unionists of the South and West adhere to their principles, the Sinn Féiners are the dominant Nationalist faction, and the Redmondites, so far as they differ from them, are a dwindling minority. The choice for it, and for all practical politicians, lies between Union and Separation, and any compromise, whether recommended by the Convention or devised by the Government, can only be temporary, and may be disastrous.’
There had been but one way open for Redmond to preserve the future of the nationalist party. This was any scheme which would set up a body clearly labelled "Irish parliament" embracing representatives from all thirty–two counties. Redmond therefore acted properly by supporting the 'Midleton Plan'. Were it not for the O'Donnell-Devlin revolt there was a fair chance for realisation of the scheme. Had they not revolted but instead led Nationalists, Southern Unionists, labour delegates and perhaps the odd independent-minded Ulstermen, Lloyd George might just have enacted the Midleton scheme. Midleton had influential political connections in England, his scheme backed by Lord Northcliffe (the press baron who had helped topple Asquith) and his organisation. Northcliffe was in a position to transform the Nationalist-Southern-Unionist agreement into practical politics at Downing Street. It was of necessity for the party to grasp this last chance of survival, which manifestly did not apply to the church.
The question of O'Donnell the ecclesiastic and O'Donnell the politician are difficult to distinguish, whatever responsibility for the failure of the Convention he bears seem to lie with his ecclesiastic role. The bishops made plain their opposition to a Swiss federal system, under which Ulster would be a kind of Protestant canton, and O'Donnell went to great length to frame a scheme that would exclude any provincial autonomy, which exposed a basic nationalist misunderstanding of Ulster. The ethos of Ulster Presbyterianism is really very democratic, though it would have been most difficult to convince the average Irish Catholic of the time of that fact. Ulster's objection to Home Rule had always been that it would set up not a democratic, but a theocratic state.
5
Hunger strikes had resumed in Mountjoy with others joining in from Dundalk, Sligo, Limerick and Cork prisons. Rumours were rife that prisoners were close to death. "Michael Brennan in Dundalk jail commented "a wire has just come from my mother asking if it is true that I am dead. Well, to the best of my knowledge its not true yet anyway...for God's sake pay no heed to those damned rumours!"
William Murphy. "Political Imprisonment and the Irish, 1912-1921". Ocford University Press, 2014. P.102
Irish Convention: O'Donnell called a meeting of Nationalists and tried to obtain a final declaration against compromise and in favour of full fiscal claims. At this point, in Plunkett's view, O'Donnell and Murphy 'tried to rush the Convention on to the rocks'. Many delegates were now drifting back to Redmond's view, and against the likelihood of a renewed division into Nationalists and Unionists.
Hunger strikes had resumed in Mountjoy with others joining in from Dundalk, Sligo, Limerick and Cork prisons. Rumours were rife that prisoners were close to death. "Michael Brennan in Dundalk jail commented "a wire has just come from my mother asking if it is true that I am dead. Well, to the best of my knowledge its not true yet anyway...for God's sake pay no heed to those damned rumours!"
William Murphy. "Political Imprisonment and the Irish, 1912-1921". Ocford University Press, 2014. P.102
Irish Convention: O'Donnell called a meeting of Nationalists and tried to obtain a final declaration against compromise and in favour of full fiscal claims. At this point, in Plunkett's view, O'Donnell and Murphy 'tried to rush the Convention on to the rocks'. Many delegates were now drifting back to Redmond's view, and against the likelihood of a renewed division into Nationalists and Unionists.
6
Dublin: John Redmond (62), leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party died and with him the Irish Parliamentary Party.
‘His life, as one of his biographers has written, ‘will stand for ever as a symbolic tragedy of a greatly gifted and disinterested statesman, who trusted overmuch in the efficacy of parliamentary agitation’
Dorothy Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin. 1951. p.246.
Redmond, an eloquent voice for conciliation was silenced, his final tragic word to the Convention was – "Better for us never to have met than to have met and failed"
Below: Editorial from the Daily Telegraph, 7 March 1918:
Below: Editorial from the Daily Telegraph, 7 March 1918:
Redmond's political career: Raised in a Catholic minor gentry family in the south east of Co Wexford, Redmond inherited constitutional nationalism from his father, Ireland’s first Home Rule MP and co-founder of the Irish Parliamentary Party. The Party would campaign at Westminster for an Irish parliament with a responsible executive exerting full control of domestic affairs.
Redmond was elected the Party’s MP for the New Ross borough in 1881 at the age of 24, at a time when land agitation was at semi-revolutionary pitch in parts of Ireland. Under the leadership of Parnell, the party campaigned simultaneously for Irish self-government and against coercion legislation, while advising tenant farmers on taking advantage of Prime Minister Gladstone’s reforming Land Bill. Though not a member of Parnell’s inner circle, Redmond was an effective parliamentary performer and orator, making a particular impact with a fine speech on the first Home Rule Bill in 1886.
When the O’Shea divorce scandal broke in late 1890, compromising Parnell’s leadership, Redmond became the chief spokesman of the minority of MPs who stood by the leader. After Parnell’s death, the split in the party lasted nine years, with Redmond leading the small ‘Parnellite’ faction against dominant anti-Parnellite sentiment. United nationalist action was frustrated when the second Home Rule Bill passed the Commons but was vetoed by the House of Lords.
On the party’s reunification in 1900, Redmond was elected leader. A natural conciliator, he bound up the party’s wounds and revived nationalist morale. With Home Rule off the political agenda for another decade, his party was responsible for solid legislative reforms that changed the face of Ireland. These include the Land Purchase Acts of 1903 and 1909 that transferred ownership of agricultural land from landlords to tenants, the Labourers Acts of 1906 and 1911 that provided for the building of almost 40,000 cottages for agricultural labourers and the 1908 Act founding the National University of Ireland, along with many smaller measures.
The general elections of 1910 gave Redmond’s party a commanding position in British politics, compelling the Liberals to activate their long-dormant Home Rule commitment. The result was the third Home Rule Bill of 1912. Under new rules, this had to pass three consecutive sessions in the Commons to become law. It was now that Redmond came up against the force that would prove his nemesis. He had enjoyed good relations with southern unionists and opposed clericalism in political life (his second wife was an English Protestant). However, he failed to comprehend the popular phenomenon that was Ulster unionism and its determination to resist Dublin rule.
The Bill having passed a second time in 1913, the unionist leaders Sir Edward Carson and Andrew Bonar Law realised it was unstoppable and sought an agreed settlement based on the exclusion of unionist Ulster from Home Rule. Redmond denounced this as the ‘mutilation’ of the Irish nation, but by early 1914 had been forced to acquiesce in Prime Minister Asquith’s offer of a temporary exclusion scheme based on individual county plebiscites and a six-year time limit.
Carson’s rejection of this and his demand for the ‘clean cut’ – the permanent exclusion of a six-county bloc – created a deadlock in Parliament. The exponential growth of rival armed unionist and nationalist volunteer forces brought the stand-off on to the streets. By July 1914, Ireland seemed on the brink of a civil war. There is evidence that Redmond was about to support dropping the time limit on Ulster’s exclusion. However, the outbreak of the Great War forestalled further discussion (and the civil war). The Home Rule Act was signed into law in September 1914, with its operation suspended for the duration of the war and with the Ulster issue unresolved. Redmond had achieved what his predecessors had failed to do, but his very success brought him up against forces they had not had to confront.
Redmond then made his famous recruiting call on Irishmen to enlist for the front. Catholic and Protestant Irishmen came forward in equal numbers. Redmond voiced an idealistic hope that the fight against a common foe would solve the Ulster issue by forging a common identity between nationalist and unionist Irishmen. This pro-war stance was seen then and since as Redmond's tactical blunder. Dr James McConnel argues that to do so 'is to misunderstand his statesmanship...Redmond saw the Great War as the continuation of the Nationalist struggle by other means...many Redmondites believed that the war's end might bring an armed confrontation with Unionists before self-government would be assured."
The rebellion of Easter 1916 changed much in Ireland. Redmond was shocked when it erupted, privately approved of the executions of the leaders but did seek clemency for the rank and file
After its suppression, the government attempted to bring the Home Rule Act into operation, subject to the provisional exclusion of a six county bloc. Redmond, with the energetic support of his Belfast lieutenant Joe Devlin MP, was able to sell the deal to Ulster nationalists, but when the government replaced ‘provisional’ with ‘permanent’ he was forced to withdraw. He was seen to have conceded partition, now a toxic term among nationalists, but with nothing to show for it.
Following the Roscommon by-election, he had offered to resign as IPP chairman
His followers abandoned the Irish Party for a resurgent Sinn Fein. Broken-hearted and demoralised by bouts of illness and bereavements (his brother Major Willie Redmond MP was killed at the front in June 1917) he died in London on March 6 1918 following surgery for gallstones.
In death, it was his Ulster supporters who proved most loyal. In the landslide Sinn Fein victory of December 1918, Redmond’s party survived in only six constituencies. One was his Wexford base. The other five were in Ulster.
''Obviously, Redmond's career ended in failure", says UCD History Professor Diarmaid Ferriter "but he had been an impressive parliamentarian and orator and was an effective advocate of Irish nationalism in Britain, dealing with politicians who were often hostile or indifferent, and he helped bring about important reforms in land and education....But he became very out of touch with Irish opinion, was far too snobbish and contemptuous in his attitude to a younger, more militant generation, and left himself in a position where he could be justifiably castigated for being far too trustworthy of untrustworthy British politicians.''
Right Rev. Monsignor M. Curran, P.P. Secretary to Archbishop Walsh, 1906-1919; Vice-Rector Irish college, Rome, 1920 in his deposition to the Bureau of Military History commented on the passing of Redmond.
Redmond was elected the Party’s MP for the New Ross borough in 1881 at the age of 24, at a time when land agitation was at semi-revolutionary pitch in parts of Ireland. Under the leadership of Parnell, the party campaigned simultaneously for Irish self-government and against coercion legislation, while advising tenant farmers on taking advantage of Prime Minister Gladstone’s reforming Land Bill. Though not a member of Parnell’s inner circle, Redmond was an effective parliamentary performer and orator, making a particular impact with a fine speech on the first Home Rule Bill in 1886.
When the O’Shea divorce scandal broke in late 1890, compromising Parnell’s leadership, Redmond became the chief spokesman of the minority of MPs who stood by the leader. After Parnell’s death, the split in the party lasted nine years, with Redmond leading the small ‘Parnellite’ faction against dominant anti-Parnellite sentiment. United nationalist action was frustrated when the second Home Rule Bill passed the Commons but was vetoed by the House of Lords.
On the party’s reunification in 1900, Redmond was elected leader. A natural conciliator, he bound up the party’s wounds and revived nationalist morale. With Home Rule off the political agenda for another decade, his party was responsible for solid legislative reforms that changed the face of Ireland. These include the Land Purchase Acts of 1903 and 1909 that transferred ownership of agricultural land from landlords to tenants, the Labourers Acts of 1906 and 1911 that provided for the building of almost 40,000 cottages for agricultural labourers and the 1908 Act founding the National University of Ireland, along with many smaller measures.
The general elections of 1910 gave Redmond’s party a commanding position in British politics, compelling the Liberals to activate their long-dormant Home Rule commitment. The result was the third Home Rule Bill of 1912. Under new rules, this had to pass three consecutive sessions in the Commons to become law. It was now that Redmond came up against the force that would prove his nemesis. He had enjoyed good relations with southern unionists and opposed clericalism in political life (his second wife was an English Protestant). However, he failed to comprehend the popular phenomenon that was Ulster unionism and its determination to resist Dublin rule.
The Bill having passed a second time in 1913, the unionist leaders Sir Edward Carson and Andrew Bonar Law realised it was unstoppable and sought an agreed settlement based on the exclusion of unionist Ulster from Home Rule. Redmond denounced this as the ‘mutilation’ of the Irish nation, but by early 1914 had been forced to acquiesce in Prime Minister Asquith’s offer of a temporary exclusion scheme based on individual county plebiscites and a six-year time limit.
Carson’s rejection of this and his demand for the ‘clean cut’ – the permanent exclusion of a six-county bloc – created a deadlock in Parliament. The exponential growth of rival armed unionist and nationalist volunteer forces brought the stand-off on to the streets. By July 1914, Ireland seemed on the brink of a civil war. There is evidence that Redmond was about to support dropping the time limit on Ulster’s exclusion. However, the outbreak of the Great War forestalled further discussion (and the civil war). The Home Rule Act was signed into law in September 1914, with its operation suspended for the duration of the war and with the Ulster issue unresolved. Redmond had achieved what his predecessors had failed to do, but his very success brought him up against forces they had not had to confront.
Redmond then made his famous recruiting call on Irishmen to enlist for the front. Catholic and Protestant Irishmen came forward in equal numbers. Redmond voiced an idealistic hope that the fight against a common foe would solve the Ulster issue by forging a common identity between nationalist and unionist Irishmen. This pro-war stance was seen then and since as Redmond's tactical blunder. Dr James McConnel argues that to do so 'is to misunderstand his statesmanship...Redmond saw the Great War as the continuation of the Nationalist struggle by other means...many Redmondites believed that the war's end might bring an armed confrontation with Unionists before self-government would be assured."
The rebellion of Easter 1916 changed much in Ireland. Redmond was shocked when it erupted, privately approved of the executions of the leaders but did seek clemency for the rank and file
After its suppression, the government attempted to bring the Home Rule Act into operation, subject to the provisional exclusion of a six county bloc. Redmond, with the energetic support of his Belfast lieutenant Joe Devlin MP, was able to sell the deal to Ulster nationalists, but when the government replaced ‘provisional’ with ‘permanent’ he was forced to withdraw. He was seen to have conceded partition, now a toxic term among nationalists, but with nothing to show for it.
Following the Roscommon by-election, he had offered to resign as IPP chairman
His followers abandoned the Irish Party for a resurgent Sinn Fein. Broken-hearted and demoralised by bouts of illness and bereavements (his brother Major Willie Redmond MP was killed at the front in June 1917) he died in London on March 6 1918 following surgery for gallstones.
In death, it was his Ulster supporters who proved most loyal. In the landslide Sinn Fein victory of December 1918, Redmond’s party survived in only six constituencies. One was his Wexford base. The other five were in Ulster.
''Obviously, Redmond's career ended in failure", says UCD History Professor Diarmaid Ferriter "but he had been an impressive parliamentarian and orator and was an effective advocate of Irish nationalism in Britain, dealing with politicians who were often hostile or indifferent, and he helped bring about important reforms in land and education....But he became very out of touch with Irish opinion, was far too snobbish and contemptuous in his attitude to a younger, more militant generation, and left himself in a position where he could be justifiably castigated for being far too trustworthy of untrustworthy British politicians.''
Right Rev. Monsignor M. Curran, P.P. Secretary to Archbishop Walsh, 1906-1919; Vice-Rector Irish college, Rome, 1920 in his deposition to the Bureau of Military History commented on the passing of Redmond.
Redmond's place as speaker of the moderate Nationalists was taken by Stephen Gwynn who had been called back from the war front the previous year to participate in a compromise with the Southern Unionists. Redmond was followed as leader the Parliamentary Party by John Dillon who was less consensual and more sympathetic to the aspirations and strategies of Sinn Féin
Washington DC: Shane Leslie commenting on the death of Redmond wrote:
"Yesterday I felt my heart being lowered into Redmond's grave...Having won the (Irish) Convention and steered it into comparative success, he died like Moses on the border of the Promised Land..."
University of Maryland Archives. Box: 20 Fold: 5 Shane Leslie - Corres. to Leonie Blanche Leslie March 11,1918
New York: The first pilotless drone, the Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane developed by Elmer Sperry and Peter Cooper Hewitt, is test-flown in Long Island, New York, but development is scrapped in 1925 after its guidance system proves unreliable.
7
Dublin: The Press Censor warned editors of Irish newspapers in an order that;
‘the greatest care must be exercised in publishing matter in relation to hunger-strikes by prisoners, and particularly so in the event of death of a prisoner who has been on hunger-strike. Comment of a nature likely to cause disaffection would be published at a grave risk to those responsible’
Dorothy Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin. 1951. p.240.
70th anniversary of the first public flying of the Irish Tricolour flag. Flown by Waterford man and Irish American Patriot Thomas Francis Meagher in his native city at the Wolf Tone Confederate Club at 33 The Mall, Waterford on March 7th 1848.
Berlin: Finland forms an alliance with Germany.
Moscow: The Bolsheviks change their name to the 'Russian Communist Party'
London: Five German Riesenflugzeug giant bombers raid England. One of them drops a 1,000-kg (2,205-lb) bomb on Warrington Crescent near London's Paddington station; Lena Ford, who in 1914 had composed the popular wartime song "Keep the Home Fires Burning" and her 30-year-old son Walter are killed in their home by this bomb, becoming the first United States citizens to be killed in a German bombing raid.
Dublin: Diarmuid Lynch was arrested, charged with conspiracy and appeared before Justice Drury who allowed bail at £50 at two sureties of £25 each. To use this as a test case and to force the British Government’s hand, Lynch refused bail and was jailed overnight on remand to appear on March 8 at the Southern Police Courts in Dublin for trial.
Sir Bryan Mahon, Commander in Chief of British Forces in Ireland issued an order prohibiting, throughout Ireland, the carrying of arms by unauthorised persons and prohibiting the possession of arms in counties Tipperary, Galway and Clare.
Below: March 7 entry (last line) shows Lynch's details and charge. His age was listed incorrectly at 36 (he was 40), the charge of 'unlawful conspiracy to seize pigs' and sentenced by Justice Drury to £50 bail or two months imprisonment. Lynch at his court appearance the next day under Justice Swifte refused to recognise the court or post bail. He was then sentenced to two months imprisonment. Note in the Remarks column 'American Citizen'.
8
Dublin: Diarmuid Lynch was tried at the Southern Police Court in Dublin, where he made the following statement:
Dublin: Diarmuid Lynch was tried at the Southern Police Court in Dublin, where he made the following statement:
“As an American citizen I stand by the principle laid down in the Declaration of American Independence and re-stated by President Wilson, the government of a people without the consent of the governed is unjust and contrary to the God given rights of all nations.
I stand by the inalienable rights of the Irish Republic enunciated by the gallant men murdered by England in 1916. I deny the right of any court constituted by British Law to deprive me of my liberty for any act of mine committed in Ireland. That which this court presumes to try me for has, I venture to say, the approval of the overwhelming majority of the people in Ireland.
It was undertaken by me in the capacity as Sinn Fein Food Director on behalf of the Irish people against he policy of the usurping British Government in denuding this country of bacon and other Irish food products contrary to the needs and interests of the Irish people.
It was also undertaken with a clear perception of what might be expected from the foreign militarism which curses this unfortunate country, and now my advice to the people of Ireland is to do what I have done. Better than some, hundreds if necessary, should suffer rather than have millions of our race die of starvation as they did in black’47 - victims of the self-same British policy.”
Diarmuid Lynch ‘The I.R.B. & the 1916 Rising’ Mercier Press Cork. 1957. Edited by Florence O'Donoghue. p.ix. Lynch Family Archives – Folder 4/18
The Cork Examiner carried the report of Lynch's sentence:
“Sinn Fein Food Controller Sentenced. In the Southern Police Court, Dublin, yesterday, Diarmuid Lynch, described as Sinn Fein Food Controller, was sent to prison for two months for conspiracy in connection with the driving off and slaughter of 34 pigs, which were seized while on their way to the North Wall for shipment. The driver refused to answer questions by the Crown Counsel, and was sent to prison for seven days for contempt. Lynch refused to recognise the authority of the court or to give bail. Mr. Devout, for the Crown, described the offence as a startling and un paralleled outrage’
Cork Examiner. March 9, 1918. Cork Public Museum Lynch Family Archives – Folder 4/19
Lynch was allowed bail on proviso that he paid a surety of £50 personally plus one surety of £50 or two sureties of £25 from householders in the Dublin City area. However he was kept under arrest during this period with five days in which to organise bail lodgement. It appears a decision had been made in event of his arrest, that the resulting publicity from trial and possible jailing would serve the Republican cause more, and as a result, no bail was posted. Lynch remained in jail.
The trial was reported extensively in the Irish-American Newspapers including The Gaelic American:
American Citizen Jailed
Diarmuid Lynch, Sinn Fein Food Director Deprived of His Liberty For His Efforts in Safeguarding The Irish Food Supply.
Diarmuid Lynch, Sinn Fein Food Director in Ireland was sentenced in the Southern Police Court, Dublin, to two months in jail, in default of finding bail of £50 and two sureties of £25 each, in connection with the seizure of 34 pigs in North Circular Rod, Dublin on February 21. Mr. Lynch, addressing the Court said, as an American citizen he took his stand on the principles of the Declaration of Independence, He stood for the right of the Irish Republic and denied the right of any other court in Ireland, constituted under British law, to deprive him of his liberty. He believed the action with which he was charged was approved by the overwhelming majority of the Irish people, and he undertook it as a protest against the policy of the usurping Government in denuding Ireland of bacon and other foods, contrary to the needs of the people. Refusing to give bail, he was later removed to prison.
The Gaelic American, March 30, 1918. Lynch Family Archives. Lynch Family Archives – Folder 4/20
Diarmuid at the time gave his residential address as 6, Harcourt Street, Dublin which was the Head Office of Sinn Fein.
A warrant for the committal of Diarmuid Lynch to Mountjoy Jail for two months was issued by the authorities on the default of bail payment:
Standard Warrant for imprisonment in event of failing to present sureties/bond.
To: The Keeper of Mountjoy Prison.
Police District of Dublin Metropolis to wit.
You are hereby required to detain in your custody the body of Jeremiah C. Lynch, otherwise Diarmuid Lynch prisoner, herewith sent for the space of two calendar months with period of imprisonment is to be from the date hereof, unless surety for the peace and good behaviour of said prisoner... for that on the 21st day of February, 1918 at North Circular Road in said district, the said prisoner:
did with certain other persons took part in an unlawful conspiracy to seize pigs and other animals from their lawful owners so as to prevent the export of such animals and at the same time and place in pursuance of said conspiracy took part in unlawful assembly for the purpose of seizing pigs and seize 17 pigs property of one Michael Bowe and 17 pigs property of one Michael Byrne and being satisfied that there is danger of future breach of the peace by the said prisoner, I therefore request the said prisoner being present before me, to find surety for being of the peace and good behaviour towards all the King’s Subjects, the said prisoner in Fifty pounds and one householder in Fifty pounds or two householders in £25 each as sureties for the term of one year next ensuing, which the said prisoner hath failed to do.
Therefore the said prisoner, you are in safe custody to keep for period of imprisonment aforesaid, unless in the meantime said prisoner shall enter into such recognizance with such surety as aforesaid and for the time required as aforesaid and for so doing this shall be your sufficient warrant.
Given under my hand and seal this 8th Day of March , 1918.
Signed E.G.Swifte*
One of the Justices of the said district
Countersigned by Governor of H.M.Prison, Mountjoy.
Stamped 11 March, General Prisons Board.
Diarmuid Lynch Papers. National Library of Ireland MS 10-652.
* Sir Ernest Godwin Swifte K.C. (03 June 1839, Kilkenny - 07 May 1927 Dublin) was the chief divisional magistrate for Dublin and following his appointment to the bench c.1890, no stranger to having all types of Dublin's citizens appear in the dock before him, from the usual mundane public order cases, commercial disputes, landlord and tenant to the increasingly Irish Republican later in his career.
Justice Swifte became synonmous with the 1913 Dublin Lock Out labour dispute with the majority of the hundreds of transport union members arrested appeared before him. As the Justice was a major shareholder in the Dublin United Tramway Company (at the centre of the labour dispute), rather than imprisoning Union members who appeared on public order charges, his preferred sentence was economic and harsh - a one pound fine with one pound costs - a total of forty shillings - which was substantial considering the average industrial wage of the time was twenty shillings. The Irish Transport and General Workers Union assisted with payment of fines where they could, but to an impoverished striking family, forty shillings was a substantial amount to find. Parodied in the Irish Worker newspaper as 'Justice Swifte and Sure' and nicknamed 'Justice Forty Bob' for his customary fine.
However it was the proclamation banning a demonstration on Sunday, 31st August 1913 in support of striking Dublin workers during the 1913 Lockout which carries his name forward. The Proclamation was issued by the Dublin Metropolitan Police and signed on August 29th, 1913, by Justice E.G. Swifte. When Labour leader James Larkin burned a copy of the proclamation later the same day at a rally in front of Liberty Hall declaring 'People make kings and people can unmake them', Swifte quickly signed a warrant for Larkin's arrest. James Connolly on the same day found himself before Swifte and declared that he did not recognise 'English Government in Ireland' and was given three months for treason. (The demonstration went ahead on Sunday despite the proclamation and was subsequently known as Bloody Sunday, with over 300 were injured when the DMP baton-charged the crowd)
Justice Swifte retired c.1919 and retired to Co. Dublin. He died in 1927 and is buried in the Church of Ireland graveyard, Whitechurch, Rathfarnham, Co. Dublin.
Lynch was served with the warrant for ‘committal to H.M.Prison, Mountjoy’ and was brought before the Governor of the Jail and Sir John Irwin, Chairman of the Visiting Committee around 6pm. What took place next was sufficient to have the Governor telephone Dublin Castle at 6.30pm to record Diarmuid Lynch’s comment and then to follow it up with a typed memorandum to the Castle:
“ I beg to submit herewith copy of warrant lodged this evening with prisoner Jeremiah Lynch, from which it appears that the prisoner has been convicted of conspiracy with other persons to unlawfully seize and did seize certain pigs, and that he took part in unlawful assembly, and sentenced to two calendar months imprisonment in default of bail, but as the warrant does not mention under what Act the sentence was imposed - I am in some doubt whether the special rules for D.O.R.A prisoners apply in this case.
I have however informed the prisoner that pending instructions, I will apply them to him and Sir. John Irwin, Chairman of the visiting committee was also present when prisoner was before me, informed the prisoner that in case it was held that the special rules did not apply in his case, he would place him in the 2nd Division, the prisoner however as already telephoned stated that unless he got the ‘Stack Terms’ he would go on hunger strike. He received the usual warning on committal.”
Hand-written opposite is:
“ This prisoner having relinquished hunger striking, you may continue treating him under the rules for D.O.R.A. prisoners’
‘The above decision is based on the fact that the full value of the pigs was paid, by agreement with the owners and the incident would appear therefore not criminal per se, more to have been largely a political move rather than a conspiracy..”
Diarmuid Lynch papers. National Library of Ireland MS 10.652. Donated to the National Library of Ireland by Liam Tobin TD on 10.12.1959 as part of the papers of Paudee O’Keefe, Assistant Clerk of the Senate. These papers had been taken from the British Administration files in Dublin Castle to verify Diarmuid Lynch’s application for Military Pension c. 1944/45. ( see January 1945 for more details )
‘I was in Mountjoy at first and on hunger-strike – ordered by A. Stack to go off hunger strike.’
Application for Military Service Pension Certificate ( Diarmuid Lynch) - Department of Defence Files. Lynch Archives. March 9, 1938.
A. Stack was Austin Stack (1879-1929) revolutionary and politician. At this time, negotiations between the Volunteers and the authorities were on-going with final agreement reached the following day as regards DORA convicts.
8
The funeral services for John Redmond were reported on in the Daily Telegraph along with reaction from some sections in the United States.
9
An agreement was reached with the authorities in the early hours of March 9th that all DORA convicts 'including hard-labour convicts whose offences were not 'criminal per se' - this excluded those guilty of assault, robbery and agrarian crimes - would be granted political treatment as long as they behaved. They would received the class D diet, while the prisoners could supplement this from outside at any time and the authorities might supplement it on occasion, not to make the prisoners 'more contented' but for medical reasons. Smoking, exercise and association for most of the day were approved. Extended hours of lighting in the cells were suggested but no hard rule was laid down. Two visits a week would be allowed. The proposal indicated the desireability of, though did not guarantee, 'congregating' qualifying prisoners in a single prison..Dundalk or the female wing of Belfast prison..."
William Murphy. "Political Imprisonment and the Irish, 1912-1921". Ocford University Press, 2014. P.103
An agreement was reached with the authorities in the early hours of March 9th that all DORA convicts 'including hard-labour convicts whose offences were not 'criminal per se' - this excluded those guilty of assault, robbery and agrarian crimes - would be granted political treatment as long as they behaved. They would received the class D diet, while the prisoners could supplement this from outside at any time and the authorities might supplement it on occasion, not to make the prisoners 'more contented' but for medical reasons. Smoking, exercise and association for most of the day were approved. Extended hours of lighting in the cells were suggested but no hard rule was laid down. Two visits a week would be allowed. The proposal indicated the desireability of, though did not guarantee, 'congregating' qualifying prisoners in a single prison..Dundalk or the female wing of Belfast prison..."
William Murphy. "Political Imprisonment and the Irish, 1912-1921". Ocford University Press, 2014. P.103
10
The Irish Volunteers Executive met and a report of the committee appointed to investigate the role of the Cork Irish Volunteers during the Rising was read. Three officers appointed by the Volunteer Executive carried out the enquiry during 1917, investigating the facts and hearing witnesses. The report stated ‘We regret the delay in completing the investigation re action of Cork, Kerry and Limerick, during Easter Week 1916. the decision regarding Cork is that owing to conflicting orders no blame can be attached to them for their inaction’
This was accepted and adopted.
The Executive selected a staff with Collins and Mulcahy the two candidates for the Chief of Staff position, with Mulcahy selected. Collins becmae director of organisation and adjutant-general, S
Chief of Staff: Richard Mulcahy
Director of Organisation Michael Collins
Adjutant-General Michael Collins
Quartermaster General Sean MacMahon
Director of Engineering Rory O’Connor
Director of Trainining Dick McKee ( in addition to O/C Dublin Brigade )
11
Prisoner # 258, Mountjoy Prison, Diarmuid Lynch in a letter to his sister, Mary:
‘My dear Moll
Here I am back again in ‘Mountjoy’ – & proud of it! ‘He who runs may read’ – and starve or not as he likes. (I am not referring to ‘hunger striking’).
Conditions here have assumed normal shape again. It looked like a fight to the finish & some of our men would go under, but word was brought by the Lord Mayor & Austin Stack on Friday night that an agreement had been reached between our friends outside & Reps of the B.G [ British Government ] with the result that the hunger strike was called off. Have just received official notification of the new regulations & I presume they are in the evening’s papers.
Up to this we had 2 hrs exercise in the morning & were shut up in our cells the other 22 hrs. Henceforth we will be free to associate & roam around our own corridors in the prison, which will give us an opportunity of studying together etc up to 6pm at which hour we are to be in our own cells. Food may be sent in to us – also tobacco, papers etc.
Denis was in with me Saturday and Kit today. She is in great form now that the hunger strike is over. Two months won't be long passing then, please God.
I have to smile when I think of my plans to go south today for that promised rest. Well, I’ll make the best of it here. Had we more time in the open air, it would be a considerable improvement, but!
Was glad to hear that you all got home OK & that everyone down there is in good form.
I want to get this off this evening, so Sland & Beannacht.
Love to yourself & all.
Diarmuid.
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 4/22
Dublin: John Dillon assumes leadership of the Irish Parliamentary Party.
Vienna: The first regular international airmail service begins, with Hansa-Brandenburg C.I aircraft linking Vienna, Lviv, Proskurov, and Kiev.
The Spanish Flu Epidemic begins
At Fort Riley, Kansas, an Army private reports to the camp hospital just before breakfast on March 11 complaining of fever, sore throat, and headache. He was quickly followed by another soldier with similar complaints. This was the beginning of the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 that killed more people than the Great War, at somewhere between 20 and 40 million people. Cited as the most devastating epidemic in recorded world history, more people died of influenza in a single year than in four-years of the Black Death Bubonic Plague from 1347 to 1351.
Kansas: Private Albert Gitchell at Camp Funston, Fort Riley, Kansas reports to the camp hospital complaining of fever, headached and sore throat. Gitchell becomes Patient Zero of the emerging 'Spanish Flu'. By noon, the camp's hospital had dealt with over 100 ill soldiers. By week's end that number jumped to 500.
The Spanish Flu was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic, the first of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus. It infected 500 million people around the world, including people on remote Pacific islands and in the Arctic, and resulted in the deaths of 50 to 100 million (three to five percent of the world's population), making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in human history.
12
Dundalk: Dundalk prison was designed the special holding centre for the Irishmen imprisoned under DORA and in the following ten days, 56 convicts arrived from Belfast, Mountjoy, Cork, Sligo and Limerick.
Irish Convention: When the Convention reassembled after Redmond's funeral, opening its fourth phase, a resolution was put forward by Lord MacDonnell, a moderate home ruler, that Irish control of customs and excise should be postponed until after the war, on condition such control should come into automatic effect three years after cessation of hostilities.
The closing text of the Report of the Proceedings of the Irish Convention had been drafted by MacDonnell with the statement:
"If the Report of the Grand Committee be dealt with in the way indicated the Convention will be in an advantageous position to review the whole situation; and to afford to the Ulster delegates a further opportunity of suggesting additions to, or modifications in, the scheme which the interests of Ulster may seem to them to call for. If any additions are deemed desirable, it seems to me dictated they might advantageously follow the line indicated in my proposals for a Provisional Grand Committee. I would add that such a Grand Committee ought not at the outset to be created on the basis of a permanent arrangement, but as an arrangement to be called into operation ad hoc. My expectations are that it will rarely or never be needed. My hope is that Ulster will find in a United Parliament for Ireland a body scrupulously ready to respond to every reasonable demand of Ulster. MACDONNELL. March 8, 1918
The first division in eight months was however taken on Bishop O’Donnell's resolution, that ‘the matters specified as unfitted for immediate legislation’ (i.e. Irish control of customs and excise be postponed). The votes were 38 moderates in favour, 34 hardliners against, just a majority of four moderates over the extremists. The moderates consisted of 21 Nationalists (led by Gwynn), 10 Southern Unionists, 4 labour and 3 independents. The minority composed of 17 Nationalists, three bishops (Kelly was indisposed), Devlin, Murphy and 17 Ulster Unionists. After which the Convention went on to consider O’Donnell's scheme, clause by clause. Bishop O’Donnell demonstrated once again that his only answer to Ulster's demands for safeguards was more and more undemocratic expedients.
The political calculations of the government for an agreed solution among the Irish was dealt a set-back when at the same time, Ulster Unionists presented the Convention with a plan for the exclusion of nine counties. No doubt O’Donnell's refusal to meet Ulstermen on their own terms on the question of safeguards, led to the failure of the Convention. Ulster regarded his action on 15 January as the decisive blow to hopes for success. The January crisis only arose however, because of the Convention's failure to enter serious negotiations on safeguards for Ulster. It wrote off any good feeling the Ulster delegation had built up, Ulstermen had come to respect Redmond during the Convention and to regard him as not a bad alternative to de Valera. Until he was suddenly dramatically overthrown by the bishops (in coalition with Devlin, the Nationalist most disliked in Ulster), intensively reviving all the old fears of clericalism in a future Irish state. This ended any meaningful dialogue with Ulster.
Russia: Moscow becomes the capital of Soviet Russia.
Dundalk: Dundalk prison was designed the special holding centre for the Irishmen imprisoned under DORA and in the following ten days, 56 convicts arrived from Belfast, Mountjoy, Cork, Sligo and Limerick.
Irish Convention: When the Convention reassembled after Redmond's funeral, opening its fourth phase, a resolution was put forward by Lord MacDonnell, a moderate home ruler, that Irish control of customs and excise should be postponed until after the war, on condition such control should come into automatic effect three years after cessation of hostilities.
The closing text of the Report of the Proceedings of the Irish Convention had been drafted by MacDonnell with the statement:
"If the Report of the Grand Committee be dealt with in the way indicated the Convention will be in an advantageous position to review the whole situation; and to afford to the Ulster delegates a further opportunity of suggesting additions to, or modifications in, the scheme which the interests of Ulster may seem to them to call for. If any additions are deemed desirable, it seems to me dictated they might advantageously follow the line indicated in my proposals for a Provisional Grand Committee. I would add that such a Grand Committee ought not at the outset to be created on the basis of a permanent arrangement, but as an arrangement to be called into operation ad hoc. My expectations are that it will rarely or never be needed. My hope is that Ulster will find in a United Parliament for Ireland a body scrupulously ready to respond to every reasonable demand of Ulster. MACDONNELL. March 8, 1918
The first division in eight months was however taken on Bishop O’Donnell's resolution, that ‘the matters specified as unfitted for immediate legislation’ (i.e. Irish control of customs and excise be postponed). The votes were 38 moderates in favour, 34 hardliners against, just a majority of four moderates over the extremists. The moderates consisted of 21 Nationalists (led by Gwynn), 10 Southern Unionists, 4 labour and 3 independents. The minority composed of 17 Nationalists, three bishops (Kelly was indisposed), Devlin, Murphy and 17 Ulster Unionists. After which the Convention went on to consider O’Donnell's scheme, clause by clause. Bishop O’Donnell demonstrated once again that his only answer to Ulster's demands for safeguards was more and more undemocratic expedients.
The political calculations of the government for an agreed solution among the Irish was dealt a set-back when at the same time, Ulster Unionists presented the Convention with a plan for the exclusion of nine counties. No doubt O’Donnell's refusal to meet Ulstermen on their own terms on the question of safeguards, led to the failure of the Convention. Ulster regarded his action on 15 January as the decisive blow to hopes for success. The January crisis only arose however, because of the Convention's failure to enter serious negotiations on safeguards for Ulster. It wrote off any good feeling the Ulster delegation had built up, Ulstermen had come to respect Redmond during the Convention and to regard him as not a bad alternative to de Valera. Until he was suddenly dramatically overthrown by the bishops (in coalition with Devlin, the Nationalist most disliked in Ulster), intensively reviving all the old fears of clericalism in a future Irish state. This ended any meaningful dialogue with Ulster.
Russia: Moscow becomes the capital of Soviet Russia.
13
The British and Irish School leaving age was raised to 14. The Minister for Education, H.A.L. Fisher commenting that the state had a duty of care 'to end the present wastage of character, ability and physique'
"Tank Week" and "Tank Banks" was the name given to a World War I fund raising campaign by the British Government. Six Mark IV make tanks toured the towns and cities of England, Scotland and Wales, the primary purpose of the campaign was to promote of sale of government War Bonds and War Savings Certificates. 'Tank Week' in Britain raised £138 million.
In America, the ‘Irish Press’ was founded in Philadelphia by Joe McGarrity to combat anti-republican ‘propaganda’ emanating from Britain.
13
The British and Irish School leaving age was raised to 14. The Minister for Education, H.A.L. Fisher commenting that the state had a duty of care 'to end the present wastage of character, ability and physique'
"Tank Week" and "Tank Banks" was the name given to a World War I fund raising campaign by the British Government. Six Mark IV make tanks toured the towns and cities of England, Scotland and Wales, the primary purpose of the campaign was to promote of sale of government War Bonds and War Savings Certificates. 'Tank Week' in Britain raised £138 million.
In America, the ‘Irish Press’ was founded in Philadelphia by Joe McGarrity to combat anti-republican ‘propaganda’ emanating from Britain.
The Red Cross Pearl Necklace Appeal
This was one of the most successful fund raising appeal for wounded soldiers of the war. An appeal was made for donations of a pearl in memory of a family member killed since 1914 with the intention of making a necklace which would be sold by a lottery, and the proceeds would go to the sick and wounded. However, the number of pearls donated was so great that it became a question of making multiple pearl necklaces. The Committee held an exhibition of pearls in the Grafton Galleries from 22 June – 1 July 1918. Over 16,000 people attended this exhibition and as a result nearly 300 additional pearls were received. A sum of £1,207 3s 2d was added to the fund. In total 3,597 pearls were given to the appeal. Many of the pearls were of historical value and had been given by prominent English families. Others came from all parts of the community. The idea of a lottery for the pearls was rejected on legal grounds. Lotteries held in public places, or to which the general public were invited, were illegal and a Bill to allow the pearl lottery was rejected by the House of Commons by four votes. However, Christies Auction firm offered to sell the necklaces by auction. After three days’ viewing, the auction was held on 19 December 1918. Forty-one pearl necklaces were sold at the auction, raising £84,383 19s 9d. |
14
Lloyd George in conversation with Lord Riddell* ‘It is no use being Prime Minister unless you can do what you want to do. It is useless for me to say that I can, because I cant. I have to make compromises all the time in order to concilliate different sections…take the Irish Question. If I had a clear majority in the House of Commons I could settle it, but I don’t.’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p178
* Scottish lawyer & newspaper proprietor 1865-1934
In Waterford, election campaigning continued for Redmond's seat. Contested by Redmond's son, Captain William Archer Redmond and Dr. White, for Sinn Fein. Redmond resigned his Tyrone seat and successfully defended his father's seat of Waterford at the subsequent by-election. Famously he campaigned in his army uniform and wearing a black armband. His victory ended a run of Sinn Féin victories at by-elections and gave a big, albeit temporary, boost to the morale of supporters of the Irish Parliamentary Party.
Lloyd George in conversation with Lord Riddell* ‘It is no use being Prime Minister unless you can do what you want to do. It is useless for me to say that I can, because I cant. I have to make compromises all the time in order to concilliate different sections…take the Irish Question. If I had a clear majority in the House of Commons I could settle it, but I don’t.’
Michael Hopkinson ’The Irish War of Independence’ Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2002. p178
* Scottish lawyer & newspaper proprietor 1865-1934
In Waterford, election campaigning continued for Redmond's seat. Contested by Redmond's son, Captain William Archer Redmond and Dr. White, for Sinn Fein. Redmond resigned his Tyrone seat and successfully defended his father's seat of Waterford at the subsequent by-election. Famously he campaigned in his army uniform and wearing a black armband. His victory ended a run of Sinn Féin victories at by-elections and gave a big, albeit temporary, boost to the morale of supporters of the Irish Parliamentary Party.
William Archer Redmond DSO (1886 – 1932) was an Irish nationalist politician serving as an MP in the House of Commons as well as a TD of Dáil Éireann. He was one of the few people to have served in both the House of Commons and in the Oireachtas. During World War I, he served in the British Army as officer with an Irish regiment on the Western Front. Following independence, Redmond was elected as an Independent Nationalist & member of the 4th Dáil for Waterford at the 1923 election. In 1926, he co-founded the National League Party, winning eight seats at the June 1927 general election. Redmond entered into a voting pact with the Labour Party and Fianna Fáil to bring down the Cumann na nGaedheal government, and replace it with a minority Labour Party–National League administration supported from outside by Fianna Fáil. This failed and in the ensuing general election in September 1927, the party won only one seat in addition to Redmond's own. Died in 1932 and was succeeded as Cumann na nGaedheal deputy for Waterford by his wife, Bridget Redmond.
|
Vincent Joseph White (1885 –1958) was an Irish politician and medical practitioner.
He first stood for election as the Sinn Féin candidate for the Waterford City by-election in March 1918, where he was defeated by the IPP candidate William Redmond. At the 1918 general election he again contested Waterford and was again beaten by Redmond. He was elected unopposed as a Sinn Féin TD to the 2nd Dáil at the 1921 elections for the Waterford–Tipperary East constituency. He supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty and voted in favour of it. He was re-elected as a pro-Treaty Sinn Féin TD at the 1922 general election but lost his seat at the 1923 election. He was re-elected as a Cumann na nGaedheal TD for the Waterford constituency at the June 1927 and September 1927 general elections. He lost his seat at the 1932 general election. He served as Mayor of Waterford from 1920 to 1926. |
15
In the case of Diarmuid Lynch’s imprisonment in Mountjoy, The Chief Secretary’s Office in Dublin Castle wrote to the Governor of Mountjoy Jail ( Stamped No. 5424. Judicial Division. 15 March 1918 )
In the case of Diarmuid Lynch’s imprisonment in Mountjoy, The Chief Secretary’s Office in Dublin Castle wrote to the Governor of Mountjoy Jail ( Stamped No. 5424. Judicial Division. 15 March 1918 )
Subject: Case of Dermid Lynch ( sic)
Minute: General Prisons Board.
Referring to the statement submitted by you on the 12th Instant, that the man ‘is being treated as a D.O.R.A. prisoner”, I have to point out that Lynch was charged with the common law offence of Unlawful Assembly and committed to prison in default of giving bail to keep the peace.
In respect of that offence, he does not therefore come within the category of a D.O.R.A. prisoner but in the circumstances the Chief Secretary has given directions that he should continue to be treated as such.
Dated 14.3.1918.
Diarmuid Lynch papers. National Library of Ireland MS 10.652. Donated to the National Library of Ireland by Liam Tobin TD on 10.12.1959 as part of the papers of Paudee O’Keefe, Assistant Clerk of the Senate. These papers had been taken from the British Administration’s files in Dublin Castle to verify Diarmuid Lynch’s application for Military Pension c. 1944/45. ( see January 1945 for more details )
Meanwhile, Diarmuid's youngest brother Michael Lynch was active in organising activities near Kinsale.
The Cork Examiner reported on the 15th March what was later to become known as ‘The Hosford Affair’:
‘Our Kinsale correspondent writes: ‘The arrival of a large number of horses and cars with ploughs created some excitement in Kinsale yesterday morning, and they, with a number of Sinn Fein followers, proceeded to the farm of a Mr. Hosford, Snugmore, from which Mr. Fennis was evicted some years ago. The farm is about one and a half miles from here, and possesion of the holding was taken, and the work of ploughing the lands proceeded with, without opposition. A few policemen arrived on the scene and one Constable was placed under arrest and deprived of his rifle and belt, the others making their escape. The ploughing operations having concluded, the police placed half a dozen men under arrest, and they were taken to the police barracks. Only two however, up to the present are detained. About 100 people soon after arrived in motor lorries, but most of those engaged at the work of ploughing had proceeded to their homes. Negotiations for the purchase of the farm have been going on for a few years, and a final offer was received, made to effect a settlement, but without avail.’
Another correspondent in the same article reported:
‘ Not a little surprise and excitement reigned in the Kinsale district when in the early morning it was noticed that very many men were afoot, that ploughs were being carted across country, and that, to these busy looking people, so early astir, all roads seemed to lead to Snugmore, some short distance from Kinsale Town; and in which is situated the farm of William Hosford, that has for several years been a matter of dispute and contention because of a former eviction on the land. A little after 8 o’clock, the mobilisation seemed complete. There were between 300 and 500 people present. At 9, the ploughs were set to work, sixteen all told, and soon the sod was being quickly turned in 3 large fields.
Hosford, has for some time been under police protection and Constable Russell and Horan, noticing the unwarranted activity, hastened to the scene. The former carrying his rifle and the other a bicycle. On coming up to the Sinn Feiners and others who formed the party in order to remonstrate with them, both men were quickly seized, searched and held captive. Constable Russell’s rifle, ammunition and belt were taken from him, while Constable Horan was subjected to a very minute search of his clothing. This he resented and, being of rather hearty build, used his weight to good account and beat his opponents for pace across the fields to bring the news to Kinsale.
Constable Russel, disarmed, was surrounded by a guard of stalwart young men with hurleys, who however, made the situation as agreeable as possible for him. When the news reached Kinsale, Detective Inspector Borough sent a force of police away under Head Constable O’Conner and Seargeant Cahill. The Cork city police authorities were communicated with and a force of 50 men under Detective Inspector O’Hara set out by motor cars for the scene. The military also took a hand and a company of Highlanders marched to Snugmore. Between 3 and 4 o’clock, the first body of police put in an appearance and the rescue of the captive constable was effected…by now the whole crowd that had assembled had broken up and dispersed. Between seven and ten acres of good land over three fields were completely ploughed and scenes of cheering and enthuasiasm took place in the earlier part of the day when the work started.
In the evening, the police were active making arrests, but all those made, numbering seven were not detained, two men being conveyed to Cork by motor lorry, under the escort of the returning Cork police and lodged in the Bridewell overnight. These were Michael Hyde, Knocklucey, Ballinhassig and Pat Dempsey, Old Head, Kinsale. Several other arrests are expected.’
The Cork Examiner. March 15th 1918. National Library of Ireland.
"Englands Not" translated as "England's Torment" A large poster from March 1918, apparently intended to reassure the German public that the war was going well. The results of "12 months of unrestricted submarine warfare in the northern sea-war arena." Each symbol represents one ship "sunken by our submarines" ships destroyed by mines or before February 1917 are not included. In light of events a quarter-century later, there is a certain irony in the quote chosen by the Germans for the lower left of the map. It's from a speech by Winston Churchill, then the British Minister of Munitions, to the American Luncheon Club at the Savoy Hotel in London, on January 11, 1918. Churchill said: "I have had to reduce by hundreds of thousand of tons, shell steel for which the manufacturing plant is ready, for which the fuses are ready, for which the guns are ready, for which the gunners are ready, because of the want of ships at this period of the conflict." (Churchill 1983, 3:2587). |
Washington: Irish American organisations took out large adverts in the Washington Times and other influential newspapers calling on the House Foreign Affairs Committee to hear bills and resolutions on the 'Irish question'
William Orpen, 'The Spy" and the Military Censor.
Early in 1918, Orpen the Irish war artist submitted two art works to the official military censor responsible for war artists, A.N.Lee. Both were named 'A Spy' and were modeled by his mistress, Yvonne Aubicque. Lee met with Orpen in March and made it clear to the artist that if the title was intended as a joke, then it was in very bad taste coming so soon after the execution of Edith Cavell by the Germans and Mata Hari by the French but if the subject really was a spy then Orpen could be facing a court-martial. Orpen gave Lee a fantastical story that the woman in the picture was a German spy who had been executed by the French but who, in an attempt to save herself, had at the last moment revealed herself nude in front of the firing squad. Lee had Orpen recalled to London to be reprimanded at the War Office and possible court-martial.
In London before the War Office review committee, Orpen retracted the firing squad story and largely thanks to his friend, Lord Beverbrook, was not charged or recalled from France as an official war artist but was ordered to remain in London. Orpen ignored this and against orders, made his way back to France. There he contrived to receive a phone call from Haig's private office, within earshot of several of Lee's colleagues from Army Intelligence, inviting him to dinner with Haig to discuss what he would like to paint next.
Lee dropped his objections to Orpen working in France and Orpen agreed to rename the two pictures The Refugee. Both Lee and Orpen later became good friends - Lee in fact had been a major in the Sherwood Forresters who had arrived in Dublin to quell the Rising and were decimated in an attack near the city centre. Lee had also been an officer in charge of arranging several of the executions that followed the fighting, including that of Joseph Plunkett, the husband of Grace Gifford, who had been Orpen's star pupil from his teaching days. Lee had a difficult relationship with many war artists and had attempted to halt the public showing of 'Paths of Glory' by Nevinson earlier in the month.
"..Much later, recounting the Aubicq episode in his memoir, he wrote: ‘I had to go constantly to the war office, and I was talked to very severely, in fact, I was in black disgrace. My behaviour could not have been worse, according to Intelligence, or whatever they were then called at GHQ.’ Tensions with authority were a recurring feature of Orpen’s French experiences and they were undoubtedly caused by his routine failures to report back to his commanding officer with his work, not to mention his reluctance to adhere to instruction as to where he should go. Of course, Orpen’s defiant streak made for better artistic legacy: it produced different perspectives on the war. Paintings of shell-shocked soldiers or destroyed towns may not have been ideal for propaganda purposes but they arguably presented a more realistic picture of war. Orpen’s biographers are at pains to emphasise the realism and integrity of his work. Writing the year after his death, P.G. Konody and Sidney Dark, stated that Orpen’s realism was such that he was obsessed by the bitterness, futility and cruelty of life. Many decades later, in a less stark assessment, Bruce Arnold wrote of Orpen that he dealt only in fact and painted objects and people as he saw them..."
The affair continued until 1928 when Orpen gave Yvonne his black Rolls Royce as a parting gift. She subsequently married his former chauffeur Charles Grover Williams. During the Second World War she and Williams formed part of a small unit of the Resistance just outside Paris. Williams was captured and shot by the Germans while Aubicque survived the war, moved to London and became a judge at Crufts.
In May 2010, a third version of The Refugee surfaced on the BBC Antiques Roadshow television programme. The Imperial War Museum had assured its owner that it was a copy by someone other than Orpen but the programme's art expert, Rupert Maas, determined it was painted by Orpen himself, painted in 1920 as a 'thank-you' present to Lord Beaverbrook for helping him avoid being court-martialled in March 1918. The picture was estimated to be worth £250,000.
Proposals to exclude Ulster from Home Rule were defeated 52 to 19 in the House of Commons.
16
Dublin: In an attempt to remedy what was perceived as widespread ‘disaffection’, numerous attempts were made to control the population, including this example of an order issued from the R.I.C office concerning ‘disloyal bands’.
‘The police were instructed, where possible, to break up the band instruments, ‘as such action was likely to have a salutary effect’ The order was issued...in view of the processions and meetings organised for St. Patrick’s Day. De Valera ...was announced to speak in Belfast. An order was issued, prohibiting the holding of the meeting on March 17th. A meeting was held however, which began at 11 p.m. Minister on the 16th. The police, ordered out in force, had to listen to a great deal of sedition before midnight struck and they had licence to draw their batons and charge. ‘The spirit that has outlived centuries of oppression will not be stamped out by the Cromwells of today’ De Valera was saying as the attack on the platform came’
Dorothy Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin. 1951. p.243
Mountjoy Prison: Diarmuid Lynch wrote to his sister Mary:
‘My Dear Moll.
The cake and butter reached me very promptly – Thursday evening. They were very welcome, just what I wanted. Kit sent me in plenteous supplies – & some to spare – of all sorts of good things – supplemented by D&A & occasional titbits from other visitors. Eggs arrived last evening, so now I’m able to have three square meals every day. More than that, the doctor had me transferred to the hospital & is giving me a tonic. I wanted this as I was really run down & as I have a bed here & better food, I’ll be in great form soon, please God.
Were I free, I might have been diverted from my holiday by the Waterford * attraction & that would surely finish me.
Kit and her friend, Betty Grimes were in yesterday. Kit is off for a couple of days at home, wish I could go along, but the pleasure will be all the sweeter when the opportunity does come. We have all sorts of glorious plans to take effect soon after my sojourn here is ended. Naturally they're in the ‘wait and see’ stage yet.
I’ve kept them all busy during the week with lists of clothes, books & various odds & ends, so I am quite well stocked now.
The new arrangement where we, 22 of us ‘convicted’ men are out in the open for a couple of hours in the forenoon and the same p.m. is very satisfactory & enables us to sleep better.
You may as well hold the letter from Aunt B & send on the Equitable letter to Denis,
Very glad to learn that Paddy O’S is home & hope he will soon be able to sport around as well as ever.
So Jerry is remaining on! I’m glad it's for his own sake too as he’ll be happier & better off. ‘Big money’ isnt everything.
Strange that Terry Mac* was not sent to Dundalk. We heard rumours that we were to be transferred there but we’re here yet anyway. This is much more convient for our visitors & by this to alone, I’d prefer to remain here. However my time is so short a change would not matter much.
Glad you are sending more cake and butter. I’ll be ready for them when they arrive.
With best thanks and love to all from
Diarmuid
P.S. Will write Mick next week. Your letter reached me yesterday – usual delay..
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 4/23
* Waterford attraction refered to the by-election in the city contested by Sinn Fein ( Dr Vincent White) and the Irish Parliamentary Party ( Captain Willie Redmond, son of the Irish Parliamentary Party Leader, John. )
* Terence McSwiney.
Washington: The United States Congress establishes time zones and approves daylight saving time (DST goes into effect on March 31).
17
Ireland: There was a distinctly political atmosphere to the St Patrick’s celebrations across Ireland this year.
Sinn Féin held meetings and demonstrations in many parts of the country where they asserted the country’s claim to complete independence and representation at the peace conference. 2,000 people turned out for a party demonstration in Kells, Co. Meath, while in Enniscorthy, prior to a meeting in Market Square, 1,500 Volunteers from almost every parish in north Wexford marched through the town. Similar crowds and sentiments were reported from Sligo Town and Ballybofey in the north-west.
On a flying visit to Belfast, Éamon de Valera visited the Falls Road where he was met by, among others, Seán McEntee and Denis McCullough. There had been plans for a much larger rally, but that had been banned by the British authorities. Therefore it was in the presence of squads of policemen that de Valera delivered his address. He stated that the party was as determined as ever to achieve freedom and drew attention to what he considered to be the hypocrisy that they should have to meet at that hour – 11 am – in order not to ‘risk the lives of the unarmed men against the rifles of the defender of small nations’.
Mr de Valera’s speech, along with the meeting, was broken up when the police intervened, charging the hurley-wielding crowd with batons. Three policemen were wounded in the scuffles and five civilians required hospital treatment. Mr de Valera did not depart the scene until the end.
At a St Patrick’s Day mass in Mullingar the Most Rev. Dr Gaughran, Lord Bishop of Meath, warned his congregation to be ‘on guard against the agents of secret societies’ and he recalled their baleful influence in the past when the ‘bravest, the noblest, and the best of the young men of Ireland, allowed themselves to become the dupes of designing men’. He hoped that history would not repeat itself. The bishop also made reference to incidents of cattle-driving, forcible possession of lands for tillage and nocturnal raids, acts which he denounced as ‘serious violations of God’s law. ...Where property is injured, they are violations of the Seventh Commandment.’
The celebrations in honour of St Patrick’s Day are worldwide. As the Cork Examiner editorialised: ‘While Irishmen at home are paying homage to St Patrick, Irishmen in the United States are also honouring his memory, and in the far antipodes – underneath the Southern Cross – Irishmen, too, are paying honour to the Saint’s lifework. In every land on which God’s sun shines where Irishmen dwell the Irish National Festival will be observed and acclaimed.’
Ireland: There was a distinctly political atmosphere to the St Patrick’s celebrations across Ireland this year.
Sinn Féin held meetings and demonstrations in many parts of the country where they asserted the country’s claim to complete independence and representation at the peace conference. 2,000 people turned out for a party demonstration in Kells, Co. Meath, while in Enniscorthy, prior to a meeting in Market Square, 1,500 Volunteers from almost every parish in north Wexford marched through the town. Similar crowds and sentiments were reported from Sligo Town and Ballybofey in the north-west.
On a flying visit to Belfast, Éamon de Valera visited the Falls Road where he was met by, among others, Seán McEntee and Denis McCullough. There had been plans for a much larger rally, but that had been banned by the British authorities. Therefore it was in the presence of squads of policemen that de Valera delivered his address. He stated that the party was as determined as ever to achieve freedom and drew attention to what he considered to be the hypocrisy that they should have to meet at that hour – 11 am – in order not to ‘risk the lives of the unarmed men against the rifles of the defender of small nations’.
Mr de Valera’s speech, along with the meeting, was broken up when the police intervened, charging the hurley-wielding crowd with batons. Three policemen were wounded in the scuffles and five civilians required hospital treatment. Mr de Valera did not depart the scene until the end.
At a St Patrick’s Day mass in Mullingar the Most Rev. Dr Gaughran, Lord Bishop of Meath, warned his congregation to be ‘on guard against the agents of secret societies’ and he recalled their baleful influence in the past when the ‘bravest, the noblest, and the best of the young men of Ireland, allowed themselves to become the dupes of designing men’. He hoped that history would not repeat itself. The bishop also made reference to incidents of cattle-driving, forcible possession of lands for tillage and nocturnal raids, acts which he denounced as ‘serious violations of God’s law. ...Where property is injured, they are violations of the Seventh Commandment.’
The celebrations in honour of St Patrick’s Day are worldwide. As the Cork Examiner editorialised: ‘While Irishmen at home are paying homage to St Patrick, Irishmen in the United States are also honouring his memory, and in the far antipodes – underneath the Southern Cross – Irishmen, too, are paying honour to the Saint’s lifework. In every land on which God’s sun shines where Irishmen dwell the Irish National Festival will be observed and acclaimed.’
John Dillon (4 September 1851 – 4 August 1927) Irish politician from Dublin, who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for over 35 years and was the last leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party. By political disposition Dillon was an advocate of Irish nationalism. For his vigorous work in the Irish Land League, which sought fixed tenure, fair rents, and free sale of Irish land, he was imprisoned twice between May 1881 and May 1882 and was Parnell’s fellow inmate in Kilmainham jail, Dublin and jailed again in 1888.
With the Parnell & Kitty O'Shea divorce case, the party split with the anti-Parnellite majority forming the Irish Nationalist Federation, of which Dillon served as chairman from 1896. In 1900, however, he agreed to join a reunited party under the Parnellite John Redmond. During the prime ministry (1902–05) of Arthur James Balfour, Dillon came to believe that the British Conservative government intended to grant Irish reforms without independence, thereby “killing Home Rule by kindness.” Throughout World War I he vehemently opposed the extension of British military conscription to Ireland, both because that measure would strengthen the agitation by the more extreme nationalist Sinn Féin and because he never accepted the view that British imperial interests necessarily coincided with those of Ireland. On Redmond’s death, Dillon, succeeded him as Nationalist Party leader. By that time, however, the party had been discredited, and in the election of December 1918 the party lost most of their seats with Dillon loosing to De Valera, he retired from politics. |
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Enniskillen: The new leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, John Dillon, delivered his first major public speech in which he set out his vision for the party and for the country. Delivered in Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh before a large crowd, many of whom had walked in procession to the town behind banner and bands, Mr Dillon declared that the first task for himself as leader ‘will be to tell England before the world that her statesmen must cease talk of a League of Nations, or pretend to carry on this war in defence of small nationalities unless she sets her own house in order, and sets free the nation which for more than 700 years has groaned under her misgovernment. That is the message, which I hope, with more or less united support from all Irish nationalists throughout the world, to convey to the Government of England.’ Mr Dillon had some very direct words of challenge to Sir Edward Carson, Unionist leader, who in recent speeches had voiced his scorn for the idea of a League of Nations as a possible solution to this war. Referring to Mr Carson as ‘the apostle of discord’, Dillon remarked that he hoped that having surveyed the results unionist activism before the war, Carson would ‘shrink from standing up before the world now, and undertake to any that the liberty of mankind and the hopes of the world to be free from war in the future are as dust in the balance compared with his ideal of maintaining faction and religious differences in this country’. The speech was received in the press along predictable lines. An unimpressed Irish Independent has editorialised that it offered no more than the rehashing of ‘the old policy of blindly trusting British statesmen’. The Belfast Newsletter has viewed the speech as characteristic of Mr Dillon’s ‘arrogant domineering tone’ and a statement of intent that the Irish Party under his leadership was set to be ‘more anti-English’ than it was under his predecessor. |
20
Under the terms of the recent agreement between the government and the Volunteers, Lynch was among a number of DORA prisoners who was transferred from Mountjoy Prison to Dundalk Jail to serve the remainder of their sentences.
Kathleen ‘Kit’ Quinn wrote to Mary Lynch:
Under the terms of the recent agreement between the government and the Volunteers, Lynch was among a number of DORA prisoners who was transferred from Mountjoy Prison to Dundalk Jail to serve the remainder of their sentences.
Kathleen ‘Kit’ Quinn wrote to Mary Lynch:
67 Drumcondra Rd.
My Dear Mary.
A line to tell you that on calling to Mountjoy today, I was told that Diarmuid had been moved from there this morning.
He is probably gone up to Dundalk Jail but I don’t know yet for certain.
Denis saw him on Monday, he was in very good form.
Will write when I get more particulars.
Best love, Kit.
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 4/24
The Dundalk Prison General Register of Prisoners (below) records that five men were moved there from Mountjoy on 20 March, 1918.
James Daly (32), a labourer from Rowes Terrace, Dublin & Nicholas Daly (34) a bricklayers from Beresford St, Dublin had been jailed in Mountjoy for two months on 26 February 1918 as both had 'committed acts likely to cause disaffection to His Majesty, The King'; Jeremiah [Diarmuid] Lynch (40) an insurance agent with last residence as Jones Road Brewery, Dublin on a charge of conspiracy on 8 March 1918 with a sentence of two months; Michael Colivet (33), a commercial traveller from Castleview Ave, Limerick and James McInnessy (31), a fish merchant from Island View, Corbally, Limerick had both been tried on 6 November 1917 under breach of The Defence of the Realm requestions under section 9.A.A. with Colivet sentenced to one year and McInnessy to two years. Colivet and McInnessy are noted that both were previously deported to Yorkshire in 1917.
Side notes on page one of the register show that all five were Roman Catholic and were literate.
Lynch's notes record that he was originally tried at a Field General Courts Martial on 20 May 1916 in Richmond Barracks on a charge of armed rebellion. Sentence of death commuted to 10 years penal servitude under his anglicised name Jeremiah C. Lynch. He also is recorded as having declined to give any details of next of kin on arrival in Dundalk but prison staff helpfully listed a John Lynch or Jones Road Distillery as his brother. Diarmuid's height is noted as five foot, eight & half inches and weighed at 140lbs (63.5kg).
Page two records that Lynch was tried at the Dublin Police Court on 8 March 1918 on a charge that he 'took part in a conspiracy to seize pigs & other animals and did seize 34 pigs the property of certain persons'. Under further remarks: 'Sentence commuted by Lord Justice Corder dated 23 April 1918. Handed over to Sergeant Smith of the DMP [Dublin Metropolitan Police] at 7pm on 24 April 1918 and removed to Dublin with a view to deportation.'
James Daly (32), a labourer from Rowes Terrace, Dublin & Nicholas Daly (34) a bricklayers from Beresford St, Dublin had been jailed in Mountjoy for two months on 26 February 1918 as both had 'committed acts likely to cause disaffection to His Majesty, The King'; Jeremiah [Diarmuid] Lynch (40) an insurance agent with last residence as Jones Road Brewery, Dublin on a charge of conspiracy on 8 March 1918 with a sentence of two months; Michael Colivet (33), a commercial traveller from Castleview Ave, Limerick and James McInnessy (31), a fish merchant from Island View, Corbally, Limerick had both been tried on 6 November 1917 under breach of The Defence of the Realm requestions under section 9.A.A. with Colivet sentenced to one year and McInnessy to two years. Colivet and McInnessy are noted that both were previously deported to Yorkshire in 1917.
Side notes on page one of the register show that all five were Roman Catholic and were literate.
Lynch's notes record that he was originally tried at a Field General Courts Martial on 20 May 1916 in Richmond Barracks on a charge of armed rebellion. Sentence of death commuted to 10 years penal servitude under his anglicised name Jeremiah C. Lynch. He also is recorded as having declined to give any details of next of kin on arrival in Dundalk but prison staff helpfully listed a John Lynch or Jones Road Distillery as his brother. Diarmuid's height is noted as five foot, eight & half inches and weighed at 140lbs (63.5kg).
Page two records that Lynch was tried at the Dublin Police Court on 8 March 1918 on a charge that he 'took part in a conspiracy to seize pigs & other animals and did seize 34 pigs the property of certain persons'. Under further remarks: 'Sentence commuted by Lord Justice Corder dated 23 April 1918. Handed over to Sergeant Smith of the DMP [Dublin Metropolitan Police] at 7pm on 24 April 1918 and removed to Dublin with a view to deportation.'
Michael Patrick Colivet (29 May 1884 – 4 May 1955) was an Irish Sinn Féin politician. He was Commander of the Irish Volunteers in Limerick during the 1916 Easter Rising, and was elected to the First Dáil. Biographical links: Wikipedia & Dictionary of Irish Biography
|
Dublin: Michael Collins was introduced to a member of the G-Division based in Great Brunswick Street police station – Ned Broy. Employed as a Clerk, he had access to the main report book that all G-Men reported in daily on various activities around the city and was to play a key part in Collins future plans. G Men, such as Broy became invaluable to Collins network, advising him on the British inteligence within Ireland, plans and operations. Collins now began to organise information ‘drops’ throughout the city, so his various contacts could leave information for collection. His inteligence organisation was both simple and effective – a chain link system of operation in which each person only had enough knowledge to perform a given job but not enough to connect that task with another individual
London: Rationing of coal, gas and electricity begins. Theatres to close at 10.30pm and restaurants at 10pm.
21
Michael Lynch was arrested and appeared before B. R Purdon, Resident Magistrate in the Cork Police Office charged with unlawful assembly, organising a Sinn Fein ploughing of land belonging to an evicted farmer at Garraha, near Kinsale, Co. Cork.
A Post Office telegram was sent to Lynch, Granig, Minane Bridge @ 11.12hrs, received in Minane Bridge Post Office at 12 midday reading:
‘Arrested today. See to Cnoc*. Miceal.’
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 4/25
* Cnoc – referring to the farm he owned at the time, Knocknamullagh or Cnocnamullagh near Passage West.
The Cork Examiner reported the proceedings the following day:
The Cork Examiner reported the proceedings the following day:
‘At the Cork Police Office yesterday before Mr. B.R.Purdon R.M., a farmer named Michael Lynch of Knocknamullagh, near Passage West, was charged at the suit of Inspector Armstrong with having on the 14th inst at a place called Garraha with others, assembled and entered the lands of Mr. Wm. Hosford and wilfully and maliciously ploughed and injured same. Sergeant Wm. Storey, Passage, stated that he arrested the defendant that morning on the warrant (produced). He gave the usual caution. The defendant said he ‘had done something for Ireland and that he would do more’. Witness asked for a remand. The Defendant, who asked no questions, said he did not recognise the court. The land ploughed was owned by Mr. Minnis, and was still his though now in the possesion of Mr. Hosford.
Mr. Purdon: ‘If you have anything to say in connection with the charge, I will listen to it.’
Defendant: ‘ No, I have nothing to say but that the ploughing was not malicious for the land belongs to Mr. Minnis’.
Mr Purdon: ‘You can bring all that out later’.
A remand for 8 days or sooner was granted, and the prisoner was remanded in custody.’
Cork Examiner. March 22nd 1918. National Library of Ireland.
Michael next appeared before the court on March 29th.
German Offensive 'Operation Michael'– Western Front
The German High Command calculated that a swift victory against the Allies was necessary before total American involvement, a final push to bring them to Paris, crushing the Allies in France and forcing a settlement with Washington, London and Paris. Soldiers were freed from various units and shipped west with the offensive planned for the area near Arras where the British and French armies joined. With both sides operating independently, an offensive at the weakest point could succeed.
On March 21st, 6,000 German artillery pieces began a barrage at 4.30am. At 9.45am, in a thick fog, the German infantry came over. Allied forces were in disarray by the end of the day. Initially the plan worked. The British Fifth Army collapsed. The allies gave ground. But for every allied trench captured, there was always another for the Germans to take. Within a week, Germany had advanced 30 miles deep into Allied territory. There had been no advance like this since the first month of the war, 3 ½ years earlier. Allied forces panicked but eventually agreed to form a single command for all armies in the Western Front. However, a suitable candidate to command the armies wasn’t found until April 5th. British losses on the first day were nearly 20,000.
New York: Monsignor Sigourney W. Fay writing to Shane Leslie commenting on the interest Sinn Fein had in obtaining support from Germany for independence from Britain:
"...the Sinn Fein party looks no longer to Germany since America has come into the war. I quite understand that all that has changed even before I said that the Irish in America would stand no pro-German nonsense. All their hopes are now in America - no longer in Germany..."
University of Maryland Internet Archives: Box: 5 Fold: 6
Irish Convention: The dramatically deteriorating military situation on the Western Front dealt a fatal blow to the Convention. Home Rule became hostage to the massive German Spring offensive of 21 March which swept all before it.
Queenstown: A special meeting of Queenstown Urban Council unanimously passed a resolution bemoaning the lowering of moral standards in the town. The motion, proposed by Mr A. Grogan, protested ‘against the disgraceful scenes of immorality by strangers to be witnessed in our public thoroughfares of late’ that have become such a source of ‘scandal to all self-respecting residents and visitors’. The ‘disgraceful scenes’ were not enumerated in the motion but they were sufficient, it was suggested, to be ‘a source of peril to the morals of our young people’. The resolution urged the police to take strong and effective measures to address the problem. The concerns of the Queenstown Council were not a bolt from the blue, but followed a recent warning by the Rev. Dr Daniel Coholan, Bishop of Cork, and his clergy to young women to avoid visiting Queenstown for the purposes of vice. Furthermore the Council joined with the Bishop and the clergy in protesting against the establishment of a hospital at Spike Island for the treatment of venereal diseases.
22
Dundalk Jail: Diarmuid wrote to his sister, Mary:
Dundalk Jail
22.3.18
My dear Moll..
I was astonished to hear of Mick’s arrest in today’s papers as it never occurred to me that he had anything to do with the Hosford Affair. I suppose he is presently in Cork Jail and hope he is well. My letter from Mountjoy could not have reached Cnoc before yesterday and I daresay he was not there on it's arrival.
I had a note from Kit yesterday. She said she wrote you also. It was as well for me that the butter you posted this day week, as the change from Mountjoy upset all arrangements. The cake she wrote you were to send on Tuesday did not reach me yet. I suppose it was too much trouble for the Mountjoy Officials to re-forward here.
There are 37 of us here now. Terry has not come yet but I suppose he will. One of our friends in Dundalk bought a cheap bed for me – also mattress & pillow. They came in today & are welcome. As for some reason which I cannot account for, I have not been sleeping well at all. Still I feel pretty well thank God. Hope to keep so as this is a fine airy place & we are out doors about six hours every day.
Sorry to learn that Auntie has not been well. Hope she is better.
Love to yourself and all.
Diarmuid.’
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 4/26
Dundalk Jail
Dundalk’s Old Gaol was built in 1853 to relieve problems of the undersized gaol already in existence at Crowe Street (now Dundalk Town Hall). Designed by John Neville, who was county surveyor for Louth between 1840 and 1886 and the total cost of the gaol when completed reached £23,000: £5000 more than was originally estimated. The Italianate building is situated on an impressive site above a sloping green. The entrance building or governor’s house is now home to the Garda Síochana. It was constructed in granite ashlar, while the two cell buildings and gaol infirmary (now the County Louth Civil Defence headquarters) were constructed in rubble stone. A central building, which was originally the inspection hall, joined the two cell buildings and the entrance building. In the entrance building space was provided for the living quarters of the governor and the turnkeys, offices for the governor, visitor’s room, boardrooms, matron’s room and accomodation for the master’s debtors. When originally built, the gaol was classed as a county borough gaol, for imprisonment admininistered by grand juries.The other class of gaol that existed at the time (up until the General Prisons Act (Ireland) was passed in 1877) was the convict prison or government prison used for penal servitude or transportation. Unfortunately not many archives relating to the gaol have been found. A prison inspector’s book for the period 1846-1852 is stored in Louth County Archives.
Patrick Hartigan was the only prisoner to escape over the twenty-foot wall of the gaol in 1875. However, his feat was shortlived as he was later recaptured. In January 1882 a convict by the name of John Conlon serving a sentence of seven years penal servitude for highway robbery also made a daring attempt at escape from Dundalk Gaol. He made the perilous decision to traverse the high prison wall when he made use of a painter’s ladder which had been left out. He fell a height of 20 feet and sustained such serious injuries that he was found unconscious by the prison warders sometime later.
The jail closed in 1915 but was reactivated for Republican prisoners sentenced by various courts throughout Ireland - some of the most famous inmates incarcerated there included John Dillon, Frank Aiken, Austin Stack, Sean Treacy and Diarmuid Lynch.
Although the last hangings that took place in Dundalk were at the previous gaol in Crowe Street, the execution of prisoners did take place in Louth County Gaol. In January 1923, Thomas McKeown from Cooley, John McNulty from Belleek and Thomas Murray from Co. Meath were executed by Free State firing squad. The three men had been found with weapons and ammunition and had been court martialled and sentenced to death at Dundalk Gaol. The executions took place at 8.00 AM on the 13th with three more executions taking place at the barracks two weeks later. This was at the height of the violence and recriminations of the Irish Civil war which was not to draw to a close until May of 1923.
The jail closed again in 1931. The governor’s residence became a Garda Station in 1945, and between 1945 -1991 the gaol buildings were used as stores by Louth County Council. In 2008, Louth County Council presented the west wing of the Gaol to Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Éireann to house the Oriel Cultural Centre.
Special Prison allowances for DORA prisoners ( from the General Prisons Board Report 1917-1918. click to enlarge.
John Redmond’s former seat in Waterford was contested and won by his son, Captain William Redmond. The Sinn Fein candidate, Dr.Vincent White was defeated by 478 votes. (Redmond: 1,242. White: 764)
Allied forces on the Western Front were retreating from an advancing German army. The German 2nd Army was punching through and dividing the British and French forces on the front.
23
Waterford: De Valera held a review of the Irish Volunteers in Waterford city.
New York: John Devoy, editor of the recently suppressed Gaelic American publically claimed credit for being the key individual behind the ‘German Sinn Féiner’ efforts to launch a revolt in Ireland in 1916.
The claim came in a letter, a copy of which was published last month in the New York World. The letter, discovered on the premises of Lawrence De Lacey at the time of his arrest in California in August 1917, is highly critical of the role played by Sir Roger Casement who, Devoy alleges, had nothing more to do with arranging the German support for the rebellion than the ‘man in the moon’. Furthermore, the letter claims that the capture – in the days prior to the Rising – of the vessel carrying arms at Tralee did not necessarily scupper plans for the Rising as other shipments would have been sent. "It was Casement who did that by sending a message to Eoin MacNeill to stop the Rising after his landing on Good Friday. MacNeill got it on the Saturday and issued his countermanding order."
The letter reads: ‘From our experience of a year of his (Casement’s) utter impracticality... we knew he would meddle... to such an extent as to spoil things, but we did not dream that he would ruin everything as he has done. He was obsessed with the idea that he was a wonderful leader, and that nothing could be done without him.’
Western Front: German forces continued to advance on the Western Front and heading towards Amiens and Paris.
The giant German cannon, the 'Paris Gun' (Kaiser Wilhelm Geschütz), begins to shell Paris from 114 km (71 mi) away.
24
Dundalk Jail: Diarmuid Lynch writing to his sister, Mary:
Dundalk Jail: Diarmuid Lynch writing to his sister, Mary:
Dundalk Jail
24.3.18
My Dear Moll.
Just a line to acknowledge & thank you for cake, butter & effs sent on Friday. You’re a ‘brick’.!
Some of the latter were broken, but I can use all except two. I have plenty of these & butter also for this week. In future please send eggs in a separate parcel – it is safer.I asked Kit to advise that those posted to Mountjoy got a bad smashing.
Sorry to learn about Michael. It is especially awkward at this season & I am quite certain that ‘case’ or ‘no case’ he’ll get a senetence. In this event I wish he could come on here, but this place will probably be full a few days hence.
Terry Mac arrived Friday.
I suppose Auntie is upset about M. that’s the worst feature. However Tim ought to be able to keep things going at Cnoc. He has a chance now to show what kind of farmer he is.
Isnt the weather glorious?! I never remember such a March – thought perhaps it's not quite the same in the sweet rainy South.
I hope Michael’s trial will come on quicly. Let me know what happens – we will probably have first news of it in the Press.
My pains are gone thank God & owing to the kindess of all the friends I’m on the right road to get out a new man.
I've got a bed in & am very comfortable.
Hoping to hear from you soon again & with love to all,
Is mise
Diarmuid
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 4/27
Western Front: First Battle of Bapaume, a phase of Operation Michael.
25
Westminster: With news of a continuing retreat by Allied Forces on the Western Front , an ‘ anxious meeting’ of Lloyd George’s War Cabinet was held in Whitehall. ‘At this meeting, it was decided that ‘advantage should be taken of the present desperate military situation’ to obtain from Parliament powers to increase the military age limit from 42 to 50 or even 55 years old, and at the same time to extend the Military Service Act to Ireland. Lord French ...who had made a three day tour earlier in the month...reported to the Prime Minister that he had found the people ‘like nothing so much as a lot of frightened children who dread being thrashed’ and that with a little careful handling, the Prime Minister would see law and order completely restored within a few weeks.... He now insisted that the Military Service Act could be applied without disorder and with only a moderate increase in the troops in garrison there....
Sir Auckland Geddes, Minister for National Service, estimated that within the present limits of military age, 150,000 men could be recruited...he thought that if the age limit was raised to 45, he could get another 25,000, and yet another 25,000 if it were raised to 55.’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p271-272.
Paris: French composer Claude Debussy dies.
Western Front: First Battle of Noyon, a phase of Operation Michael.
Waterford: Capt William Redmond, son of John Redmond, the long-serving Irish Party leader, defeated the Sinn Féin candidate Dr Vincent Joseph White 1,242 votes to 764.
In many ways, the result was not a surprise. Waterford City was unlikely to return a Sinn Fein candidate that the Irish Independent described the Nationalist Party’s triumph as a ‘foregone conclusion’. Both the Irish Party and Sinn Féin campaigned heavily in the constituency in the effort to win it. Sinn Féin President Éamon de Valera was among those who visited as was the Irish Parliamentary Party’s Belfast MP Joseph Devlin. Both de Valera and Capt. Redmond, called separately upon the Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, Most Rev. Dr Hackett. Also notable was the presence throughout the campaign of the Irish Volunteers, whose deployment in support of the Sinn Féin candidate drew complaints from Irish Party supporters.
The Irish Party supporters held a torchlight procession and, with three bands accompanying them, paraded along the Mall before progressing to their meeting place at Ballybricken amid cheering and scenes of great enthusiasm. Crowds of Sinn Féiners, meanwhile, marched, with pipers leading the way, to their meeting place at Ballytruckle. The Sinn Féin processionists were jeered at points along the route by supporters of their opponent, who chanted ‘Up Redmond’.
On the day of the election itself a number of Irish Volunteers lined up on the road opposite the entry to Ballybricken polling station, when a women stood on a chair and erected placards above their heads which read ‘Redmond’s Guards’. The counting of the votes began at the Courthouse in Waterford at 10 o’clock on Saturday morning and it was from here, on learning of his victory, that Capt. Redmond was carried on the shoulders of supporters to his hotel. The victory of Capt. Redmond, coming so fast on the heels of the party’s triumph in South Armagh, provided a much needed fillip to the Irish Party, but its wider significance was already being contested by the different sides.
For the ever-loyal Freeman’s Journal, the Redmond victory is being trumpeted as a repudiation of Sinn Féin’s claim to speak for the people of Ireland. The paper had been dismissive of Mr de Valera’s post-election assertion that it was the unionists who had given Mr Redmond his majority, a charge that it claimed was ‘wildly grotesque’. But had the results in South Armagh and Waterford really put a stop to Sinn Féin’s gallop? The Irish Independent didn’t think so: ‘Even two swallows do not make a summer' it commented.
Melbourne, Australia: A crowded meeting of protest was held at Melbourne Town Hall following the display of Sinn Féin flags and ‘disloyal’ emblems in the course of a St Patrick’s Day procession. The Lord Mayor, who had sanctioned the procession, remarked that he never dreamed that such materials would be exhibited. A resolution was passed urging Prime Minister Billy Hughes to use to War Precautions Act to prevent such an occurrence from happening again. Meanwhile, the Irish born Archbishop of Melbourne, Daniel Mannix, addressed a crowd of 8,000 stating that he was not aware of any Sinn Féin organisation in the city. Nevertheless he urged the crowd that no matter where threats came from they were to be true to the principles of right and justice, and faithful to Ireland and to Australia.
25
Westminster: With news of a continuing retreat by Allied Forces on the Western Front , an ‘ anxious meeting’ of Lloyd George’s War Cabinet was held in Whitehall. ‘At this meeting, it was decided that ‘advantage should be taken of the present desperate military situation’ to obtain from Parliament powers to increase the military age limit from 42 to 50 or even 55 years old, and at the same time to extend the Military Service Act to Ireland. Lord French ...who had made a three day tour earlier in the month...reported to the Prime Minister that he had found the people ‘like nothing so much as a lot of frightened children who dread being thrashed’ and that with a little careful handling, the Prime Minister would see law and order completely restored within a few weeks.... He now insisted that the Military Service Act could be applied without disorder and with only a moderate increase in the troops in garrison there....
Sir Auckland Geddes, Minister for National Service, estimated that within the present limits of military age, 150,000 men could be recruited...he thought that if the age limit was raised to 45, he could get another 25,000, and yet another 25,000 if it were raised to 55.’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p271-272.
Paris: French composer Claude Debussy dies.
Western Front: First Battle of Noyon, a phase of Operation Michael.
Waterford: Capt William Redmond, son of John Redmond, the long-serving Irish Party leader, defeated the Sinn Féin candidate Dr Vincent Joseph White 1,242 votes to 764.
In many ways, the result was not a surprise. Waterford City was unlikely to return a Sinn Fein candidate that the Irish Independent described the Nationalist Party’s triumph as a ‘foregone conclusion’. Both the Irish Party and Sinn Féin campaigned heavily in the constituency in the effort to win it. Sinn Féin President Éamon de Valera was among those who visited as was the Irish Parliamentary Party’s Belfast MP Joseph Devlin. Both de Valera and Capt. Redmond, called separately upon the Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, Most Rev. Dr Hackett. Also notable was the presence throughout the campaign of the Irish Volunteers, whose deployment in support of the Sinn Féin candidate drew complaints from Irish Party supporters.
The Irish Party supporters held a torchlight procession and, with three bands accompanying them, paraded along the Mall before progressing to their meeting place at Ballybricken amid cheering and scenes of great enthusiasm. Crowds of Sinn Féiners, meanwhile, marched, with pipers leading the way, to their meeting place at Ballytruckle. The Sinn Féin processionists were jeered at points along the route by supporters of their opponent, who chanted ‘Up Redmond’.
On the day of the election itself a number of Irish Volunteers lined up on the road opposite the entry to Ballybricken polling station, when a women stood on a chair and erected placards above their heads which read ‘Redmond’s Guards’. The counting of the votes began at the Courthouse in Waterford at 10 o’clock on Saturday morning and it was from here, on learning of his victory, that Capt. Redmond was carried on the shoulders of supporters to his hotel. The victory of Capt. Redmond, coming so fast on the heels of the party’s triumph in South Armagh, provided a much needed fillip to the Irish Party, but its wider significance was already being contested by the different sides.
For the ever-loyal Freeman’s Journal, the Redmond victory is being trumpeted as a repudiation of Sinn Féin’s claim to speak for the people of Ireland. The paper had been dismissive of Mr de Valera’s post-election assertion that it was the unionists who had given Mr Redmond his majority, a charge that it claimed was ‘wildly grotesque’. But had the results in South Armagh and Waterford really put a stop to Sinn Féin’s gallop? The Irish Independent didn’t think so: ‘Even two swallows do not make a summer' it commented.
Melbourne, Australia: A crowded meeting of protest was held at Melbourne Town Hall following the display of Sinn Féin flags and ‘disloyal’ emblems in the course of a St Patrick’s Day procession. The Lord Mayor, who had sanctioned the procession, remarked that he never dreamed that such materials would be exhibited. A resolution was passed urging Prime Minister Billy Hughes to use to War Precautions Act to prevent such an occurrence from happening again. Meanwhile, the Irish born Archbishop of Melbourne, Daniel Mannix, addressed a crowd of 8,000 stating that he was not aware of any Sinn Féin organisation in the city. Nevertheless he urged the crowd that no matter where threats came from they were to be true to the principles of right and justice, and faithful to Ireland and to Australia.
Copies of letters from Diarmuid Lynch, Dundalk Jail dated 25 March, 1918.
For some reason, this surviving letter had the recipients name cut from the prison paper.
Dundalk Jail
25.3.18
My dear ----
I was delighted to learn from Kit's note, just to hand, that both of you are coming up on Wednesday. The Governor had already informed me that Mr. McArdle had given a permit for an extended visit. In view of this, do not call until after 2pm - our dinner hour is from 1 to 2 during which there are no visits. Dine at the Queen's Hotel. I am having a rice pudding from there every day (high life!) & the girls there are great friends of Austin Stack & all the boys.
Notes from Denis & Jim D. also received. Evidently overlooked acknowledging that (?) cream Denis left at Mountjoy. I got it just as we were leaving there. Very glad to have it.
A couple of boxes of 'Three Castle' cigarettes & a cake of soap will be acceptable on Wednesday.
"Seadna" * sent was what I wanted. Since our arrival here we have done little or no study but, commencing today we are to make progress. Hope the two Micks** will come off OK but - !!
Looking forward to Wednesday with the greatest pleasure.
Love to all.
* Séadna refered to by Lynch is an Irish language book by Fr. Peadar Ó Laoghaire (April 1839 – 21 March 1920). This was the first major literary work of the emerging Gaelic revival, serialised in the Gaelic Journal from 1894, and published in book form in 1904. The plot of the story concerns a deal that the shoemaker Séadna struck with "the Dark Man" - The Devil. Although the story is rooted in Irish folklore it is also closely related to the German legend of Faust. It was first published as a serial in various Irish-language magazines.
** The Two Micks - referring in one instance to his brother, Michael Francis who was arrested for agrarian disturbances near Kinsale the previous month. The other 'Mick' is unknown.
Below: Queens Hotel, Dundalk c.1960s & The "Three Castles" Cigarettes.
26
Dublin: With the large pool of ready conscripts in Ireland, more hope was placed on the almost completed Irish Convention. Lloyd George in discussion with some of the War Cabinet agreed to await the findings of the Convention before applying conscription to Ireland.
Laurence Ginnell MP was before the Dublin Police Court on various charges arising out of alleged incitement of persons to engage in cattle-driving. The court heard evidence from a number of constables who noted the occasions of the inciting speeches were made and as a result of which, it is alleged, several farms were cleared of their stock. Ginnell was ordered to enter into bail in £500 and to find two sureties of £1,000 each, or face up to six months imprisonment. His only response was: ‘Will the English power last so long in this country?’ As the defendant was being removed from the dock, his wife, Alice Ginnell, waved a republican flag and resisted efforts from a policeman to wrest it from her. Mrs Ginnell was assisted by Maud Gonne MacBride, who sat beside her. Mrs Gonne MacBride’s son also joined the affray and was "vigorously treated by the police." Also in attendance was the Lord Mayor of Dublin, who, on seeing the police lay hands on Mrs Ginnell, leaped from his seat and shouted: ‘Please don’t ill-use the lady.’
London: Dr. Marie Stopes' influential book 'Married Love' first published in March 1918 by a small publisher, after many other larger publishers turned her down because of its controversial content. It rapidly sold out, and was in its sixth printing within a fortnight. The US Customs Service banned the book as obscene until April 6, 1931, when Judge John M. Woolsey overturned that decision. Woolsey was the same judge who in 1933 would lift the ban on James Joyce's Ulysses, allowing for its publication and circulation in the United States of America. 'Married Love' was the first book to note that women's sexual desire coincides with ovulation and the period right before menstruation. The book argued that marriage should be an equal relationship between partners. Although officially scorned in the UK, the book went through 19 editions and sales of almost 750,000 copies by 1931.
In a 1935 survey of American academics, it was observed that Married Love was one of the 25 most influential books of the previous 50 years, ahead of Relativity by Albert Einstein, Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud, Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler and The Economic Consequences of the Peace by John Maynard Keynes.
France: French Marshal Ferdinand Foch is appointed Supreme Commander of all Allied forces.
Western Front: Battle of Rosieres, a phase of Operation Michael.
New York: The Executive Committee of the Friends of Irish Freedom met and decided to hold the Second Irish Race Convention to meet in the Central Opera House, New York on May 18 & 19, 1918. Acting Chairman to be John J Rooney.
FOIF Circular - AIHS Archives thanks to Eileen McGough
Western Front: Battle of Rosieres, a phase of Operation Michael.
New York: The Executive Committee of the Friends of Irish Freedom met and decided to hold the Second Irish Race Convention to meet in the Central Opera House, New York on May 18 & 19, 1918. Acting Chairman to be John J Rooney.
FOIF Circular - AIHS Archives thanks to Eileen McGough
27
Dublin: The Commander of British Forces in Ireland, Sir Bryan Mahon reported that
‘ conscription can be enforced but with greatest difficulty...the present time is the worst for it since I have been in Ireland... I would suggest that the first thing is to get all the known leaders out of the way at once, extra troops should be on the spot immediately, and everyone, irrespective of who he is, is arrested on the first sign of trouble’...The Prime Minister called this report ‘ on the whole, in favour of conscription’... but he could not say as much for the reports of the Chief Secretary Duke or Brigadier General Byrne, Inspector General of the R.I.C, which were submitted on the same day. They were blankly pessimistic.’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p272-273
The looming conscription crisis was what finally brought both the church and moderate opinion into line with the Sinn Fein direction.
Dublin: The Commander of British Forces in Ireland, Sir Bryan Mahon reported that
‘ conscription can be enforced but with greatest difficulty...the present time is the worst for it since I have been in Ireland... I would suggest that the first thing is to get all the known leaders out of the way at once, extra troops should be on the spot immediately, and everyone, irrespective of who he is, is arrested on the first sign of trouble’...The Prime Minister called this report ‘ on the whole, in favour of conscription’... but he could not say as much for the reports of the Chief Secretary Duke or Brigadier General Byrne, Inspector General of the R.I.C, which were submitted on the same day. They were blankly pessimistic.’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p272-273
The looming conscription crisis was what finally brought both the church and moderate opinion into line with the Sinn Fein direction.
28
Western Front: Allied retreat continued in front of the German advance.
Third Battle of Arras (also known as First Battle of Arras (1918)), a phase of Operation Michael.
Westminster: At a Cabinet Meeting in London, the decision was taken that, as soon as the Irish Convention reported, the Military Service Act authorising conscription, would be applied to Ireland.
Sir Henry Wilson was ‘not afraid to take 100,000 - 150,000 recalcitrant conscripted Irishmen into an army of two and a half million fighting in five theatres of war’
Dorothy Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin. 1951. p.248.
‘Sir Edward Carson , ‘with much regret’ said that conscription would cause too much bloodshed to be worth contemplating’ ‘This then was the dilemma now faced by the Government. On the one hand, Home Rule, in any form in which Parliament would consent to pass it, would almost certainly be rejected by Unionist Ulster and Nationalists Ireland alike: in short, would have to be not only passed, but enforced as well. On the other hand, responsible opinion - North as well as South - agreed that conscription would be perilous and even a disastrous undertaking.’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p273.
So what was to be done...the Western Front demanded additional manpower, but what would public opinion say to an increased age limit for conscription within Britain while up to 150,000 Irishmen ‘were allowed to stand idly by’?
The historian, George Dangerfield comments on how Lloyd George solved this particular dilemma:
‘we can now be fairly sure, judging by his manoeuvres from this time on, that Lloyd George intended to solve this dilemma by offering Home Rule as a quid pro quo for Conscription, and then seeing to it that both were indefinitely postponed....to his way of thinking, the manpower problem, while desperate, was not quite so desperate as Irish conscription....‘
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p273.
Philadelhia: McGarrity founded the Irish Press newspaper in Philadelphia with McCartan as editor, Patrick Lagan and Joseph Sexton as associate editors and Dr. Maloney as one of the chief writers. It was banned from the US mails after 8 issues. Not surprisingly, Devoy was a little unhappy with it’s circulation in New York where it clashed with his own Gaelic American.
29
Paris: 75 die and 95 injured when a German shell hits a city church during Good Friday services.
Cork: The Cork Examiner reported the next appearance of Michael Lynch before the Police Courts:
Western Front: Allied retreat continued in front of the German advance.
Third Battle of Arras (also known as First Battle of Arras (1918)), a phase of Operation Michael.
Westminster: At a Cabinet Meeting in London, the decision was taken that, as soon as the Irish Convention reported, the Military Service Act authorising conscription, would be applied to Ireland.
Sir Henry Wilson was ‘not afraid to take 100,000 - 150,000 recalcitrant conscripted Irishmen into an army of two and a half million fighting in five theatres of war’
Dorothy Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin. 1951. p.248.
‘Sir Edward Carson , ‘with much regret’ said that conscription would cause too much bloodshed to be worth contemplating’ ‘This then was the dilemma now faced by the Government. On the one hand, Home Rule, in any form in which Parliament would consent to pass it, would almost certainly be rejected by Unionist Ulster and Nationalists Ireland alike: in short, would have to be not only passed, but enforced as well. On the other hand, responsible opinion - North as well as South - agreed that conscription would be perilous and even a disastrous undertaking.’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p273.
So what was to be done...the Western Front demanded additional manpower, but what would public opinion say to an increased age limit for conscription within Britain while up to 150,000 Irishmen ‘were allowed to stand idly by’?
The historian, George Dangerfield comments on how Lloyd George solved this particular dilemma:
‘we can now be fairly sure, judging by his manoeuvres from this time on, that Lloyd George intended to solve this dilemma by offering Home Rule as a quid pro quo for Conscription, and then seeing to it that both were indefinitely postponed....to his way of thinking, the manpower problem, while desperate, was not quite so desperate as Irish conscription....‘
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p273.
Philadelhia: McGarrity founded the Irish Press newspaper in Philadelphia with McCartan as editor, Patrick Lagan and Joseph Sexton as associate editors and Dr. Maloney as one of the chief writers. It was banned from the US mails after 8 issues. Not surprisingly, Devoy was a little unhappy with it’s circulation in New York where it clashed with his own Gaelic American.
29
Paris: 75 die and 95 injured when a German shell hits a city church during Good Friday services.
Cork: The Cork Examiner reported the next appearance of Michael Lynch before the Police Courts:
‘Michael Lynch, Knocknamallock, Rochestown, was charged by Seargeant Cahill with having on March 14th with others, unlawfully assembled and forcibly entered and ploughed up the lands of Mr. William Hosford, Snugmore, Kinsale. Seagarnt Cahill said a deposition had alreadt been taken in the case and now asked for a further remand.
The defendant when asked had he any questions to ask, said ‘Why ask for a remand for a further 8 [ Days ] Are you not hatching this case for a fortnight?’
Witness: ‘Yes’
Defendant: ‘Sure the police will swear all what is wanted to be sworn’
A remand for 8 days was granted.’
Cork Examiner. March 29th 1918. National Library of Ireland.
30
Dundalk Jail: Diarmuid Lynch writing to his sister Mary:
Dundalk Jail
30.3.18
My dear Moll.
Yours of Tuesday & Thursday and parcels received in due time. A thousand thanks. More than half the eggs were in a hopeless condition however, so please do not send any more. I would like to get them from home of course, but as I can secure a supply here in Dundalk, I’m OK. Under the circumstances it would be a sin to waste any more thro’ the post. By the way, who is ‘M.J.’ that sent the lot last week?
Seventeen dozen eggs have come in from Dundalk Cumman na mBan, so that each of the boys who get none from home can have at least now have at least two each for Easter. I had a great visit from Kit and Alice on Wednesday. They brought me all sorts of good things. I expect K has written you.
I am in great form thank God – and why wouldn’t I with plenty of the best nourishing food – thanks to my friends, plenty sleep & nothing special to worry about. I may have enough of the latter later on, so will avoid it here if possible. Since I got the bed in I sleep well. By the way Dr Gill yesterday read for me Dr O’Brien’s letter to Dr McCormack of the Prisons Board. Please thank Dr O’B for being so kind & assure him that so far, my stomach has given me no trouble & thank goodness the lumbago ( or whatever it is ) has disappeared.
I’ve been watching the papers during the week for news of Mick and the other boys, thinking that perhaps their trial would come off earlier than expected. Am glad to hear he is in such good form. Yes it was to be expected that Auntie would be upset, but sure there is no great reason – thanks to his good friends and neighbours. It's awkward of course, but there are a large number of men who are as badly fixed – some a great deal worse. In these time, we must keep smiling – no matter what turns up.
It's an agreeable surprise to hear that Fr B is expected to pay us a visit. I suppose he intends to run up from Dublin on the occasion of a visit here.
By the way re eatables, I would suggest that you send half a cake & ½ lb butter twice a week. This will keep me going nicely, hoping to get good news early next week & with love to yourself & the boys.
Slan & beannacht!
Diarmuid.
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 4/28
The same day, Lloyd George sent a secret message to all the British Dominion Prime Ministers requesting their assistance in raising and sending to France, fresh troops. The German offensive had advanced over 55 kilometers and taken 80,000 Allied forces prisoner.
France: First Battle of Villers-Bretonneux, a phase of Operation Michael.
Azerbaijan: Bolshevik and Armenian Revolutionary Federation forces suppress a Muslim revolt in Baku, Azerbaijan, resulting in up to 30,000 deaths.
31
Dublin: As part of their monthly report to Dublin Castle, the Judges in the March Assizes reiterated:
‘the country was practically free from crime’. Nevertheless, the prisons were occupied. Members of National Associations were continually being arrested under the Crimes Act of 1887 or under the defence of the Realm Act as being suspected to be about to commit an act prejudicial to the peace...the number of such arrests reported during March was 213.’
Dorothy Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin. 1951. p.242
New York: The Gaelic American newspaper was now reaching over 85% of the Clann na Gael membership by this time.
Westminster: With conscription about to be applied to Ireland, the British Government received a message from President Wilson promising a US Army draft to supply the 120,000 men monthly over four months that the Allies were demanding for Europe. However he also warned that the imposition of conscription in Ireland may cause trouble in the United States.
Meanwhile an Irish Volunteers squad moved to London under the command of Cathal Brugha (44). If and when conscription was to be enforced, he was to take the squad to the House of Commons and open fire on the Government Front Benches.
The Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service combine to form the Royal Air Force, the world's first independent air force, with Sir Hugh Trenchard as the first Chief of the Air Staff.
North King’s County: An election was announced to replace the late Edward Graham as its local MP.
The Irish Parliamentary Party selected John Dooly as its candidate. Dooly was Birr-based and serves as the Chairman of King’s County County Council. He was selected at a well-attended meeting in Tullamore where he delivered a short address, expressing the hope that the campaign would command their approval and confidence. Dooly is an auctioneer and owns a large furniture warehouse. His challenger was Sinn Féin’s Dr Patrick McCartan, who unsuccessfully contested the seat in South Armagh in February. Having lost the last three by-elections, the determination of the republicans in this constituency was evident, particularly in the number of public meetings that were held and the high visibility of prominent political figures such as Sinn Féin President, Éamon de Valera. A large police presence was noted as in the county, perhaps in the expectation of the same type of confrontation between rival supporters as had been witnessed in other electoral competitions.
Joseph McDonagh, brother of executed Easter Rising leader Thomas McDonagh was rearrested under the Cat and Mouse Act, having been released from prison in 1917 after going on hunger strike. McDonagh was in charge of the organisation of the Clara polling district for Dr McCartan and had spoken at several Sinn Féin rallies in the constituency.
Dundalk Jail: Diarmuid Lynch in a letter to Kathleen Quinn:
Meanwhile an Irish Volunteers squad moved to London under the command of Cathal Brugha (44). If and when conscription was to be enforced, he was to take the squad to the House of Commons and open fire on the Government Front Benches.
The Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service combine to form the Royal Air Force, the world's first independent air force, with Sir Hugh Trenchard as the first Chief of the Air Staff.
North King’s County: An election was announced to replace the late Edward Graham as its local MP.
The Irish Parliamentary Party selected John Dooly as its candidate. Dooly was Birr-based and serves as the Chairman of King’s County County Council. He was selected at a well-attended meeting in Tullamore where he delivered a short address, expressing the hope that the campaign would command their approval and confidence. Dooly is an auctioneer and owns a large furniture warehouse. His challenger was Sinn Féin’s Dr Patrick McCartan, who unsuccessfully contested the seat in South Armagh in February. Having lost the last three by-elections, the determination of the republicans in this constituency was evident, particularly in the number of public meetings that were held and the high visibility of prominent political figures such as Sinn Féin President, Éamon de Valera. A large police presence was noted as in the county, perhaps in the expectation of the same type of confrontation between rival supporters as had been witnessed in other electoral competitions.
Joseph McDonagh, brother of executed Easter Rising leader Thomas McDonagh was rearrested under the Cat and Mouse Act, having been released from prison in 1917 after going on hunger strike. McDonagh was in charge of the organisation of the Clara polling district for Dr McCartan and had spoken at several Sinn Féin rallies in the constituency.
Dundalk Jail: Diarmuid Lynch in a letter to Kathleen Quinn:
Dundalk Jail
April 1st, 1918
‘To break the monotony here we had a ‘courtmartial’ yesterday on one of the lads who comandeered a cake from another.
The oath taken by witnesses will give you a ‘line’ of the trial –
‘By all the goats in Kerry and all the girls in Dundalk and by the supreme codology of Lord Herr Brinney Mahoney*, I swear that my evidence shall be as truthful as the Daily Mail, as honest as the ‘Freeman’s Journal’ and as complete as a ‘Spring Offensive’** so help me DORA’***.
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 4/32
* Brinny Mahoney - unknown reference but may have been the Governor of Dundalk Jail.
** Spring Offensive: the massive advance of German infantry and heavy retreat of Allied troops in late March, early April 1918.
*** DORA - ‘Defence Of the Realm Act’
** Spring Offensive: the massive advance of German infantry and heavy retreat of Allied troops in late March, early April 1918.
*** DORA - ‘Defence Of the Realm Act’
Dublin: The Chief Secretary for Ireland responding to a claim by the Lord Mayor of Dublin that political hunger strikers were being ill-treated in prison, pointed out that during the previous two months men claiming to be on ‘Politicial’ hunger strike included burglars and cattle drivers.
Canada: Martial law is declared in Quebec as anti-conscription rioting spreads.
Canada: Martial law is declared in Quebec as anti-conscription rioting spreads.
Dungannon: The Irish Parliamentary Party won the East Tyrone by-election. When the votes were counted and declared in Dungannon yesterday, they had a 580 vote majority. The full result read:
Thomas J. Harbison (Irish Party): 1,802 votes. Seán Milroy (Sinn Féin): 1,222. Spoiled: 15
The result, hot on the heels of the IPP’s victories in South Armagh and Waterford by-elections, marked another electoral setback for Sinn Féin. However, the Sinn Féin candidate and supporters were putting on a brave face; Milroy’s principal supporters declared that their intention all along had been to merely test the feeling of the constituency. The Sinn Féiners also declared themselves content that their vote had held up against what they said was the combination of Irish Party and unionist forces. Publicly at least, they put forward the line that they had performed better than expected.
Much of the pre-election speculation had focussed on how unionists might vote, or if they would vote at all. With no unionist candidate in the race, Sinn Féin canvassers were of the mind that their nominee would triumph by a small majority if the unionist voters abstained. However, if they turned out, the balance would have been expected to swing to the Irish Parliamentary Party’s man. Harbison’s victory suggests that, on election day, a sufficient number of unionists did go to the polls.
‘...But it was well known that Sinn Fein contested this seat only at the last moment and merely to test the strength of the candidate there.’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p312-313.
‘these victories for the Irish Parliamentary Party were due, largely, to causes not operative in the rest of Ireland and they conveyed a misleading impression in the mind of Lloyd George’
Dorothy Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin. 1951. p.247.
There was some tension in the constituency in the run-up to the election, with high profile political figures such as Joseph Devlin (IPP) and Éamon de Valera (SF) joining the campaign in support of their respective candidates. Sinn Féin ‘peace patrols’ were there too, the Freeman’s Journal reported, more visible than in any previous election, with the sole exception of East Clare. Armed with hurleys and sticks, they paraded country roads and, on polling day, they took up positions in the vicinity of the booths.
But Irish Party supporters were no shrinking violets. In one incident, Sinn Féin’s Harry Boland and Dr McNabb were returning from a meeting on the outside of a car when they had stones hurled at them. Mr Boland leaped from the car, overtook one of the attackers and knocked him into a ditch.
Tensions were not only between the two nationalist factions. On the eve of the poll, an open-air meeting organised by Sinn Féin in the Market Square in Dungannon was held up for over an hour by a large group of young unionists who occupied the area and chanted songs that included ‘Rule, Britannia’, ‘The Red, White and Blue’, and ‘We’ll hang de Valera on the sour apple tree’. When the unionists were moved on, the Sinn Féiners – marching in fours – arrived, bearing large republican flags and escorted by the Donaghmore Flute Band and the Coalisland Pipers Band. They didn’t stop in Market Square but proceeded to Anne Street where their meeting was held on the steps of the Technical Institute. Speeches were delivered by Countess Markievicz, Count Plunkett, the candidate Seán Milroy and others. It was there that a rival meeting of Redmondites made an appearance, accompanied by the Ancient Order of Hibernians band. A police cordon kept them from progressing up Anne Street but a number of girls broke through to shout support for the IPP candidate and abuse at their rivals.
In his moment of victory, Thomas Harbison delivered a speech from his hotel where he stated that he had been returned so that Ireland ‘might have a government amenable to the Irish people and that Ireland might have a place in the sun as a nation’. Harbison was inundated with messages of congratulations, including one from his new party leader, John Dillon MP, who telegraphed ‘Nationalist Ulster stands firm’.
Western Front: Battle of the Avre, final phase of Operation Michael. Australians halt German advance at Villers Bretonneux.
Thomas J. Harbison (Irish Party): 1,802 votes. Seán Milroy (Sinn Féin): 1,222. Spoiled: 15
The result, hot on the heels of the IPP’s victories in South Armagh and Waterford by-elections, marked another electoral setback for Sinn Féin. However, the Sinn Féin candidate and supporters were putting on a brave face; Milroy’s principal supporters declared that their intention all along had been to merely test the feeling of the constituency. The Sinn Féiners also declared themselves content that their vote had held up against what they said was the combination of Irish Party and unionist forces. Publicly at least, they put forward the line that they had performed better than expected.
Much of the pre-election speculation had focussed on how unionists might vote, or if they would vote at all. With no unionist candidate in the race, Sinn Féin canvassers were of the mind that their nominee would triumph by a small majority if the unionist voters abstained. However, if they turned out, the balance would have been expected to swing to the Irish Parliamentary Party’s man. Harbison’s victory suggests that, on election day, a sufficient number of unionists did go to the polls.
‘...But it was well known that Sinn Fein contested this seat only at the last moment and merely to test the strength of the candidate there.’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p312-313.
‘these victories for the Irish Parliamentary Party were due, largely, to causes not operative in the rest of Ireland and they conveyed a misleading impression in the mind of Lloyd George’
Dorothy Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin. 1951. p.247.
There was some tension in the constituency in the run-up to the election, with high profile political figures such as Joseph Devlin (IPP) and Éamon de Valera (SF) joining the campaign in support of their respective candidates. Sinn Féin ‘peace patrols’ were there too, the Freeman’s Journal reported, more visible than in any previous election, with the sole exception of East Clare. Armed with hurleys and sticks, they paraded country roads and, on polling day, they took up positions in the vicinity of the booths.
But Irish Party supporters were no shrinking violets. In one incident, Sinn Féin’s Harry Boland and Dr McNabb were returning from a meeting on the outside of a car when they had stones hurled at them. Mr Boland leaped from the car, overtook one of the attackers and knocked him into a ditch.
Tensions were not only between the two nationalist factions. On the eve of the poll, an open-air meeting organised by Sinn Féin in the Market Square in Dungannon was held up for over an hour by a large group of young unionists who occupied the area and chanted songs that included ‘Rule, Britannia’, ‘The Red, White and Blue’, and ‘We’ll hang de Valera on the sour apple tree’. When the unionists were moved on, the Sinn Féiners – marching in fours – arrived, bearing large republican flags and escorted by the Donaghmore Flute Band and the Coalisland Pipers Band. They didn’t stop in Market Square but proceeded to Anne Street where their meeting was held on the steps of the Technical Institute. Speeches were delivered by Countess Markievicz, Count Plunkett, the candidate Seán Milroy and others. It was there that a rival meeting of Redmondites made an appearance, accompanied by the Ancient Order of Hibernians band. A police cordon kept them from progressing up Anne Street but a number of girls broke through to shout support for the IPP candidate and abuse at their rivals.
In his moment of victory, Thomas Harbison delivered a speech from his hotel where he stated that he had been returned so that Ireland ‘might have a government amenable to the Irish people and that Ireland might have a place in the sun as a nation’. Harbison was inundated with messages of congratulations, including one from his new party leader, John Dillon MP, who telegraphed ‘Nationalist Ulster stands firm’.
Western Front: Battle of the Avre, final phase of Operation Michael. Australians halt German advance at Villers Bretonneux.
The Irish Convention held its 51st and final meeting at Trinity College Dublin. It ended with votes of thanks to its chairman, Sir Horace Plunkett, and to its host, the Provost and Fellows of Trinity College who placed Regent House and its accommodation at the disposal of the Convention. More crucially, it ended with the adoption of a draft report, which would be presented to the Government early the following week, but had not yet been made public.
The Convention, which first met on 25 July 1917, was called by Lloyd George in a circular to the Irish Party leaders in May of that year as an alternative to the ‘notorious partition scheme’ and was conducted in the absence of Sinn Féin, the Nation League and the All-for-Ireland Party which refused to participate.
The Convention held sittings in Dublin, Belfast and Cork, and a delegation visited London to confer with the War Cabinet in February this year to address difficulties which had arisen in the course of their deliberation. The process was not without controversy and two members - E.E. Lysaght and George Russell (Æ) - resigned during its proceedings. Three other members tragically died before its conclusion - John Redmond, Sir Alex McDowell and Sir Henry Blake.
Following the final sitting of the Convention the members were photographed in their places at the table for posterity and were then taken to the Gresham Hotel where Sir Horace Plunkett hosted lunch.
The Convention, which first met on 25 July 1917, was called by Lloyd George in a circular to the Irish Party leaders in May of that year as an alternative to the ‘notorious partition scheme’ and was conducted in the absence of Sinn Féin, the Nation League and the All-for-Ireland Party which refused to participate.
The Convention held sittings in Dublin, Belfast and Cork, and a delegation visited London to confer with the War Cabinet in February this year to address difficulties which had arisen in the course of their deliberation. The process was not without controversy and two members - E.E. Lysaght and George Russell (Æ) - resigned during its proceedings. Three other members tragically died before its conclusion - John Redmond, Sir Alex McDowell and Sir Henry Blake.
Following the final sitting of the Convention the members were photographed in their places at the table for posterity and were then taken to the Gresham Hotel where Sir Horace Plunkett hosted lunch.
Sir Horace Plunkett's diary entry for 5 April 1918 reads: 'The final sitting & the Convention was at its worst. The Ulstermen may be neglected, they were bound to act stupidly. But the fight between the Bishops with the extreme Nationalists & the Moderate Nationalists which led to the former voting (even against the adoption of the Narrative Report) together was confusing and humiliating...In the afteroon minority reports and notes began to come in. The Bishop of Rahpoe & his friends put in a document obviously written by Childers of great ability and moderation. I was dead tired and very near a breakdown.'
(Image: National Library of Ireland, MS 42,222/38)
The Irish Convention's resulting proposals were largely symbolic. ‘Only 44 members, less than half the Convention, signed the main report. It proposed a form of Home Rule in which the Irish Parliament would have no power over matters affecting the crown, peace and war, army and navy and various other services, and no control during the war over postal services or police, and no control, until the UK Parliament should grant it, over Customs and Excise. 40% of the representation in the Irish Lower House was to be given to the Unionists.
A Committee of the Convention composed of three Unionists and two Nationalists under the chairmanship of the Duke of Abercorn, reported against conscription, declaring it would be impossible to impose compulsory service in Ireland without the consent and co-operation of an Irish Parliament.’
Dorothy Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin. 1951. p.247.
‘ In the end, as in the beginning, Orange Ulster never combined with Southern Unionism except to create mischief, while any combination of Southern Unionism with Redmond produced only division among Redmond’s followers.’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p267
‘it was a makeshift proposal that evoked little support, and it was widely realised that the Convention had been a tragic failure. This fact aroused deep concern in many circles in Ireland and in America’
Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Independence 1866-1922’. Devin-Adair. 1957. p.243
Local newspapers in Connaught and the Belfast Evening Telegraph were suppressed and 28 Irish papers had their foreign circulation banned.
Western Front: British and French armies were united under one command, that of French General Foch. However, the German forces continued the offensive pushing deeper into France.
Russia: Japanese soldiers landed in Vladivostok in support of the anti-Communists.
A Committee of the Convention composed of three Unionists and two Nationalists under the chairmanship of the Duke of Abercorn, reported against conscription, declaring it would be impossible to impose compulsory service in Ireland without the consent and co-operation of an Irish Parliament.’
Dorothy Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin. 1951. p.247.
‘ In the end, as in the beginning, Orange Ulster never combined with Southern Unionism except to create mischief, while any combination of Southern Unionism with Redmond produced only division among Redmond’s followers.’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p267
‘it was a makeshift proposal that evoked little support, and it was widely realised that the Convention had been a tragic failure. This fact aroused deep concern in many circles in Ireland and in America’
Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Independence 1866-1922’. Devin-Adair. 1957. p.243
Local newspapers in Connaught and the Belfast Evening Telegraph were suppressed and 28 Irish papers had their foreign circulation banned.
Western Front: British and French armies were united under one command, that of French General Foch. However, the German forces continued the offensive pushing deeper into France.
Russia: Japanese soldiers landed in Vladivostok in support of the anti-Communists.
Dundalk Jail: Diarmuid Lynch in a letter to sister Mary
‘Dundalk Jail
Saturday 6.4.18
My Dear Moll.
Hope to hear good news on Monday re M.
Glad Auntie is better. Will write next week.
I expect to be allowed out any moment to see Denis. He is to come today.
Many thanks for cake which arrived this evening.
The butter which you were to post a week ago did not arrive. Parcels must have miscarried as no butter arrived for the past 10 or 14 days. They did not get as far as the prison anyway – otherwise I would have got them. However I was able to borrow enough to keep me going from Terry etc. Alice brought 2 lbs but I divided most of that – expecting other consignments.
We enjoyed ourselves over Easter as best we could.
What scoundrels they are around Ballyfeard to worry the poor [ Word illegible ]
Got a lb of tobacco from Mgt T.J. – quite a supply.
In a rush.
Love to all,
Diarmuid
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 4/29
Update August 2022.
Thanks to the ever affable retired UCC Associate Professor, Colm O'Sullivan, a previously unknown 1918 Dundalk Jail prison letter by Diarmuid Lynch to Mrs Margaret Murphy of Cork, has been discovered and appears here for the first time.
(For context, Colm's grandparents were Margaret Murphy (nee Geany) & Thomas Joseph Murphy, a relative of Diarmuid through his step-mother, Margaret Murphy (1847-1915). Margaret Geany (1870-1958) had trained as a nurse in New York's Mount Sinai Training School in the 1890s but it is unknown if she knew Diarmuid in the city at that time.)
In this note written to Margaret Murphy on the familiar prisons 'Form 21' dated Saturday, April 6, 1918, Lynch writes of largely social items. While this letter was evidently smuggled from the prison via his brother Denis, there seem to be no political comments or references. He thanks her for the gift of tobacco 'enough & to spare', writes of recent visitors to the prison and reassures her that 'this place is 'not all bad' compared with Dartmoor etc...'.
This letter explains a reference made by Lynch in an earlier letter of the same day to his sister, Mary. He comments that he "Got a lb of tobacco from Mgt T.J. – quite a supply." (With a number of relatives named Margaret, the convenient family shorthand to distinguish one from another were initials - in this case, Margaret's husband, Thomas Joseph.)
Lynch kept the tone of his note to Margaret, light, optimistic and hopeful that he and his fiancée, Kathleen 'Kit' Quinn: '...before the summer is over we may take a trip South & in this event stay longer than on our last visit'.
Thanks to the ever affable retired UCC Associate Professor, Colm O'Sullivan, a previously unknown 1918 Dundalk Jail prison letter by Diarmuid Lynch to Mrs Margaret Murphy of Cork, has been discovered and appears here for the first time.
(For context, Colm's grandparents were Margaret Murphy (nee Geany) & Thomas Joseph Murphy, a relative of Diarmuid through his step-mother, Margaret Murphy (1847-1915). Margaret Geany (1870-1958) had trained as a nurse in New York's Mount Sinai Training School in the 1890s but it is unknown if she knew Diarmuid in the city at that time.)
In this note written to Margaret Murphy on the familiar prisons 'Form 21' dated Saturday, April 6, 1918, Lynch writes of largely social items. While this letter was evidently smuggled from the prison via his brother Denis, there seem to be no political comments or references. He thanks her for the gift of tobacco 'enough & to spare', writes of recent visitors to the prison and reassures her that 'this place is 'not all bad' compared with Dartmoor etc...'.
This letter explains a reference made by Lynch in an earlier letter of the same day to his sister, Mary. He comments that he "Got a lb of tobacco from Mgt T.J. – quite a supply." (With a number of relatives named Margaret, the convenient family shorthand to distinguish one from another were initials - in this case, Margaret's husband, Thomas Joseph.)
Lynch kept the tone of his note to Margaret, light, optimistic and hopeful that he and his fiancée, Kathleen 'Kit' Quinn: '...before the summer is over we may take a trip South & in this event stay longer than on our last visit'.
Transcription with footnotes
Dundalk Jail.
6.4.18
My dear Margaret[1].
Delighted to get your letter & hope you now feel OK after sojourn at Youghal[2]. I would vote with the girls for Myrtleville[3], but at the moment would be quite satisfied with Youghal.
Still this place is 'not all bad' compared with Dartmoor[4] etc, & as, thanks to our good friends, we have plenty to eat & plenty to smoke[5], we are putting down the time well. A thousand thanks for the supply of tobacco via DWD[6]. You did well to send me 'enough to spare'. Mrs B.[7] did not forget what my favourite is.
McCurtis[8] (Jim Curtin's[9] father in law) called to see me a few days ago, & was most kind in his offers to get things for me, which I much appreciate.
Yes, thank goodness, I get rid of the backache but occasionally get a reminder to be careful.
Denis[10] is coming to see me tomorrow, so this goes by 'special post' from here - you are not supposed to get any from me - unless it went thro special channels.[11]
Will give your message to Kit[12]. I am hoping that before the summer is over, we may take a trip South & in this event will stay longer than our last visit.
Tom[13] of course enjoys a swim in the morning before leaving for the city (I.D.T)[14]
My love to the girls[15]. [some words torn from end of letter] see you all before many moons have passed.
Is mise[16], Diarmuid
[1]Margaret Murphy (nee Geaney) (1870-1958). Margaret trained as a nurse in Mount Sinai, New York in the late 1890s. It's unknown if she knew Diarmuid at that time. Margaret later married Thomas J Murphy (1867-1948) a relative of Diarmuids.
[2] Youghal - a growing Irish resort town in East Co. Cork from 1890s.
[3] Myrtleville - a small seaside village near Fountainstown & Crosshaven, Co. Cork.
[4] Dartmoor. Diarmuid had been jailed in Dartmoor (1916-17) following the Easter Rising.
[5] 'Plenty to eat & plenty to smoke' - Members of Dundalk's Cumman na mBan are noted as providing most of the Irish Republican prisoners fresh food needs as wartime prison fare was spartan.
[6] DWD - Dublin Whiskey Distillers, Jones Road, Dublin. Diarmuid's brother, Denis was the Chief Distiller/Manager of the distillery and a frequent visitor to Dundalk Jail. Click here for more information on Denis Lynch and DWD.
[7] Mrs B. Perhaps the local shopkeeper?
[8] McCurtis - unknown
[9] Jim Curtin - unknown
[10] Denis: Denis Lynch - Diarmuid's brother & Chief Distiller/Manager of Dublin Whiskey Distillers.
[11] 'Special Post' & 'special channels': i.e. smuggling this letter from Dundalk Jail.
[12] Kit - Kathleen Quinn - Diarmuid's fiancée. They were to secretly marry in Dundalk Jail twenty days later.
[13] Tom - Thomas J.Murphy (1867-1948) Husband of Margaret. Thomas was owner of T.J.Murphy's Provisions store, 39 George's Street (renamed Oliver Plunkett Street in 1922) and 24 Grand Parade, Cork.
[14] I.D.T. - Unknown
[15] 'The girls' - daughters of Margaret & Tom: Natalie (1903-1944), Mary (1904-1949) & Sheila (1904-1987)
[16] Is Mise - translated from the Irish language as 'yours' - a shortened version of 'is mise le meas' Irish for 'yours sincerely'
Dundalk Jail.
6.4.18
My dear Margaret[1].
Delighted to get your letter & hope you now feel OK after sojourn at Youghal[2]. I would vote with the girls for Myrtleville[3], but at the moment would be quite satisfied with Youghal.
Still this place is 'not all bad' compared with Dartmoor[4] etc, & as, thanks to our good friends, we have plenty to eat & plenty to smoke[5], we are putting down the time well. A thousand thanks for the supply of tobacco via DWD[6]. You did well to send me 'enough to spare'. Mrs B.[7] did not forget what my favourite is.
McCurtis[8] (Jim Curtin's[9] father in law) called to see me a few days ago, & was most kind in his offers to get things for me, which I much appreciate.
Yes, thank goodness, I get rid of the backache but occasionally get a reminder to be careful.
Denis[10] is coming to see me tomorrow, so this goes by 'special post' from here - you are not supposed to get any from me - unless it went thro special channels.[11]
Will give your message to Kit[12]. I am hoping that before the summer is over, we may take a trip South & in this event will stay longer than our last visit.
Tom[13] of course enjoys a swim in the morning before leaving for the city (I.D.T)[14]
My love to the girls[15]. [some words torn from end of letter] see you all before many moons have passed.
Is mise[16], Diarmuid
[1]Margaret Murphy (nee Geaney) (1870-1958). Margaret trained as a nurse in Mount Sinai, New York in the late 1890s. It's unknown if she knew Diarmuid at that time. Margaret later married Thomas J Murphy (1867-1948) a relative of Diarmuids.
[2] Youghal - a growing Irish resort town in East Co. Cork from 1890s.
[3] Myrtleville - a small seaside village near Fountainstown & Crosshaven, Co. Cork.
[4] Dartmoor. Diarmuid had been jailed in Dartmoor (1916-17) following the Easter Rising.
[5] 'Plenty to eat & plenty to smoke' - Members of Dundalk's Cumman na mBan are noted as providing most of the Irish Republican prisoners fresh food needs as wartime prison fare was spartan.
[6] DWD - Dublin Whiskey Distillers, Jones Road, Dublin. Diarmuid's brother, Denis was the Chief Distiller/Manager of the distillery and a frequent visitor to Dundalk Jail. Click here for more information on Denis Lynch and DWD.
[7] Mrs B. Perhaps the local shopkeeper?
[8] McCurtis - unknown
[9] Jim Curtin - unknown
[10] Denis: Denis Lynch - Diarmuid's brother & Chief Distiller/Manager of Dublin Whiskey Distillers.
[11] 'Special Post' & 'special channels': i.e. smuggling this letter from Dundalk Jail.
[12] Kit - Kathleen Quinn - Diarmuid's fiancée. They were to secretly marry in Dundalk Jail twenty days later.
[13] Tom - Thomas J.Murphy (1867-1948) Husband of Margaret. Thomas was owner of T.J.Murphy's Provisions store, 39 George's Street (renamed Oliver Plunkett Street in 1922) and 24 Grand Parade, Cork.
[14] I.D.T. - Unknown
[15] 'The girls' - daughters of Margaret & Tom: Natalie (1903-1944), Mary (1904-1949) & Sheila (1904-1987)
[16] Is Mise - translated from the Irish language as 'yours' - a shortened version of 'is mise le meas' Irish for 'yours sincerely'
Westminster: In a meeting of Cabinet, Lloyd George newly returned from a fact finding mission to the Western Front, discussed the future plans of the Government both for the war and for Irish conscription. He proposed sending to the front, boys aged eighteen and a half...and on Ireland:
‘I do not believe it possible in this country to tear up single businesses, to take fathers of 45 and upwards to fight the battle of a Catholic nationality on the Continent without deep resentment at the spectacle of sturdy young Catholics in Ireland spending their time in increasing the difficulties of this country by drilling and compelling us to keep troops in Ireland...he next turned to Home Rule as a necessary adjunct to conscription, trying to persuade his Unionist colleagues that Orange Ulster would accept a Home Rule measure based on the report of the Irish Convention, which had just been approved in Dublin...under pressure, however, he was forced to admit that the Convention’s report...had not been passed by a substantial majority...and he would have to substitute a Bill based on a letter he had been authorised to send to Sir Horace Plunkett in February proposing that:
(1) For the duration of the war and for two years thereafter, Irish Customs and Excise should be reserved for the Imperial Parliament, and that a Royal Commission should be set up at the end of the war to examine the whole question of Irish fiscal autonomy. ( improbable that fiscal autonomists would accept this )
(2) That there should be an all Ireland Parliament, having within it, an Ulster Committee with power to modify or exclude from application to Ulster, all legislation ‘not consonant with the interests of Ulster’. ( barely possible that Nationalists would agree to this )
(3) That the Ulster and Southern Unionists should have an extra representation in a Parliament which might properly meet in alternate sessions in Dublin and Belfast. (Unlikely that the Ulster Unionists would have anything to do with this point )
Nonetheless, the Prime Minister told the assembled ministers that the War Cabinet expected to bring in a new Military Service Bill ‘ which will provide for the application of conscription ( to Ireland ) by Order in Council. We propose to bring in simultaneously our Home Rule Bill, put it through Parliament, and then immediately apply the Military Service Act ( to Great Britain )... it will take time to put conscription into force in Ireland. We have not the machinery. We will have to provide a register, with the aid of police.’
This was not really ‘gilding the conscription bill with Home Rule ‘ - something which the Unionists would never accept. Actually it was pure evasion’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p275-276
Second phase of the Spring Offensive begins and runs until April 29, Operation Georgette (also known as Battle of the Lys). The results are disappointing for German forces.
‘I do not believe it possible in this country to tear up single businesses, to take fathers of 45 and upwards to fight the battle of a Catholic nationality on the Continent without deep resentment at the spectacle of sturdy young Catholics in Ireland spending their time in increasing the difficulties of this country by drilling and compelling us to keep troops in Ireland...he next turned to Home Rule as a necessary adjunct to conscription, trying to persuade his Unionist colleagues that Orange Ulster would accept a Home Rule measure based on the report of the Irish Convention, which had just been approved in Dublin...under pressure, however, he was forced to admit that the Convention’s report...had not been passed by a substantial majority...and he would have to substitute a Bill based on a letter he had been authorised to send to Sir Horace Plunkett in February proposing that:
(1) For the duration of the war and for two years thereafter, Irish Customs and Excise should be reserved for the Imperial Parliament, and that a Royal Commission should be set up at the end of the war to examine the whole question of Irish fiscal autonomy. ( improbable that fiscal autonomists would accept this )
(2) That there should be an all Ireland Parliament, having within it, an Ulster Committee with power to modify or exclude from application to Ulster, all legislation ‘not consonant with the interests of Ulster’. ( barely possible that Nationalists would agree to this )
(3) That the Ulster and Southern Unionists should have an extra representation in a Parliament which might properly meet in alternate sessions in Dublin and Belfast. (Unlikely that the Ulster Unionists would have anything to do with this point )
Nonetheless, the Prime Minister told the assembled ministers that the War Cabinet expected to bring in a new Military Service Bill ‘ which will provide for the application of conscription ( to Ireland ) by Order in Council. We propose to bring in simultaneously our Home Rule Bill, put it through Parliament, and then immediately apply the Military Service Act ( to Great Britain )... it will take time to put conscription into force in Ireland. We have not the machinery. We will have to provide a register, with the aid of police.’
This was not really ‘gilding the conscription bill with Home Rule ‘ - something which the Unionists would never accept. Actually it was pure evasion’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p275-276
Second phase of the Spring Offensive begins and runs until April 29, Operation Georgette (also known as Battle of the Lys). The results are disappointing for German forces.
Cork: Michael Lynch was sentenced to 6 months imprisonment for his part in 'The Hosford Affair'
A statement of his 6 month sentence appears in his 1935 Pension Application. Imprisoned in Cork jail initially, he recalled:
A statement of his 6 month sentence appears in his 1935 Pension Application. Imprisoned in Cork jail initially, he recalled:
‘removed from Cork Jail to Mountjoy while on Hunger Strike early in April 1918. I relinquished the strike after 15 days on orders from Austin Stack and Michael Collins. Released from Mountjoy about June 1918’
Statement by Michael Lynch – part of application for Military Service Pension Certificate, December 1935. Lynch Archives.
Irish Convention: The final Convention report, carried by sixty-six votes to thirty-four (short of a 'substantial agreement'), marking the final phase of the Convention, arrived in Downing Street. The covering letter from Sir Horace Plunkett makes for interesting reading with the benefit of historical hindsight:
"...whilst it was not found possible to overcome the objections of the Ulster Unionists, a majority of Nationalists, all the Southern Unionists and five out of the seven Labour representatives were agreed that the scheme of Irish Government...should be immediately passed into law...The Convention has, therefore, laid a foundation of Irish agreement unprecedented in history...The work of an Irish settlement, suspended at the outbreak of the war, is now felt to admit of no further postponement..." As to the Irish Question..'..the greatest obstacle to it's settlement has been the Ulster difficulty...There was, however a portion of Ulster where a majority claimed that, if Ireland had the right to separate herself from the rest of the United Kingdom, they had the same right to separation from the rest of Ireland...
The main document called for the immediate establishment of self-government by an Irish Ministry consisting of two houses, with special provisions for southern and northern Unionists. It was accompanied by two minority reports along with five 'notes'.
The Report arrived in Downing Street as the Cabinet was meeting to consider extending conscription to include Ireland.
Resolution of the Irish question therefore became intertwined with the military manpower crisis.
Lloyd George and his Cabinet agreed to simultaneously introduce Home Rule and apply conscription in Ireland.
The fact that the government linked the implementation of the report with the enactment of conscription ruined both the credibility of the Convention and any residual interest for Home Rule. It spelt the end of Home Rule as a popular cause.
This "dual policy" of conscription and devolution heralded the end of a political era, the context for a wider federalist debate was at once overhauled. Its dualism signalled the end of All-Ireland Home Rule and the end of an optional federal engagement with Ireland, which had it succeeded and if the Convention's Report had been implemented in full, would have established a novel form of federal government at the heart of Europe
Although the Convention appeared to have failed in its immediate objective, it generated ideas and reactions and revealed standpoints that had an independent and lasting significance.
Some historians, such as Nicholas Mansergh, believe that the Convention was never designed to be of any real significance. He argues that " Lloyd George merely used the Convention to deflect international criticism of Britain's Irish policy. Perhaps it was simply a British ploy to appease Irish-Americans, and in turn improve Anglo-American relations. After so many failed attempts to solve the Irish question, it would seem only natural that the Irish parties involved should be relied on to settle on a compromise themselves. By agreeing to introduce legislation on any 'substantial agreement,' Lloyd George could remain involved but take no blame for another unresolved attempt.
S. F. L. Lyons argues that "the convention had two important consequences; firstly it forced Nationalists to realise that Ulster Unionists were not bluffing in their rejection of Home Rule, and secondly it increased Sinn Fein's advantage over the Irish Parliamentary Party." The Irish Parliamentary party were once again undermined because of their failure to apply Home Rule with immediate affect. Redmond's support for Midleton's policy had cause the initial split in the party, leaving it weakened and an easy opponent for the rising Sinn Fein party. Sinn Fein made a smart political move in avoiding the conference, as their absence was perhaps more valuable to them in the long run than their participation would have been.
Below: Report of the Proceedings of the Irish Convention 1918 and copies of the covering letter from Sir Horace Plunkett to Lloyd George.
To view or to download a copy of the full report, click here.
The Daily Telegraph reports on Irish events plus an example of how seriously food waste was viewed:
Cork: The Cork Examiner's editorial believed that the government's plans to introduce military conscription for Ireland 'as far as may be learned, appear yet to definite shape'.
New York: Judge Daniel Cohalan told a gathering of Irish Americans at Carnegie Hall that they would be loyal to the USA, but that they would equally hold President Wilson to his declaration: ‘We shall fight … for the rights and liberties of small nations’. The Friends Of Irish Freedom was determined that this statement must apply to the small nation of Ireland.
New York: Judge Daniel Cohalan told a gathering of Irish Americans at Carnegie Hall that they would be loyal to the USA, but that they would equally hold President Wilson to his declaration: ‘We shall fight … for the rights and liberties of small nations’. The Friends Of Irish Freedom was determined that this statement must apply to the small nation of Ireland.
Dundalk Jail: Diarmuid writing to his sister, Mary:
Dundalk Jail
9.4.18
My Dear Moll...
So they did their worst with Mick. I am now wondering where he will be kept - more than likely it will be Belfast. Even in this event he will have friends there to get him anything he requires. You will have your hands full too. In this respect, I'm glad I’ll be off your list soon - for the present at any rate.
The butter came to hand Saturday evening after I had written you & as Alice sent a lot of things, I've been very well off - & I've developed an appetite for home-made bread and eggs!
I'm sending this note with one to Kit, as when posted early tomorrow it will reach you just as soon. it takes two days either way for delievery of letters.
I shall probably hear from you tomorrow – with all the latest news.
It's very awkward for M to be away from Cnoc, but I'm sure everything will go well there even in his absence.
March was such a grand month that I'm sure Dan had everything well advanced.
Love to self & all.
Diarmuid.
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 4/30
Dundalk Jail 1918
Back row (L-R): Diarmuid Lynch, Ernest Blythe, Terence MacSwiney, Dick McKee, Michael Colivet
Front row (L-R): Frank Thornton, Bertie Hunt, Michael Brennan.
Back row (L-R): Diarmuid Lynch, Ernest Blythe, Terence MacSwiney, Dick McKee, Michael Colivet
Front row (L-R): Frank Thornton, Bertie Hunt, Michael Brennan.
Westminster: House of Commons MPs gathered for a special sitting. At 3pm, British prime minister David Lloyd George briefed the house on the situation along the Western Front in the wake of the colossal assault that had recently fallen upon British armies in the Picardy region. Conceived by Field Marshall Erich von Ludendorff, the offensive had swallowed and shattered British units standing in its path, including the two Irish divisions, the 16th and the 36th. Although Ludendorff had already terminated the offensive on April 5th, Lloyd George and his cabinet colleagues were panicked by the speed of the German advance, as well as the catastrophic scale of the breach in the Allied line, and resolved to use all means at their disposal to furnish their beleaguered armies with the reinforcements needed to drive the Germans back. The object of their attention would be Ireland.
Lloyd George addressed the Commons with a note of foreboding: “We have entered the most critical phase of this terrible war. There is a lull in the storm, but the hurricane is not over . . . the fate of the empire, the fate of Europe, and the fate of liberty throughout the world, may depend on the success with which the very last of these attacks is resisted and countered.”
After providing a lengthy outline of the course of the campaign, underlining the gravity of events and the importance of additional manpower, the prime minister asked leave to introduce a motion on the 'Man Power' proposals.
These included: Raising the military age to 50 – and to 55 in certain specified cases, Shortening of the period of call-up from 14 to 7 days, inclusion of clergymen for non-combat services and extension of the act to Ireland under the same conditions as in Great Britain.
Almost drowned out by cries of indignation from Irish Parliamentary Party members, led by Joseph Devlin and Alfred Byrne, Lloyd George persisted: “When an emergency has arisen, which makes it necessary to put men of 50 and boys of 18 into the Army in the fight for liberty and independence . . . I am perfectly certain it is not possible to justify any longer the exclusion of Ireland.”
To this, the newly-appointed IPP leader, John Dillon, bellowed: “You will not get any men from Ireland by compulsion – not a man!”
However, the 'perfidious Welshman' had equipped himself enough to do damage to Dillon’s position. He prevaricated by arguing the IPP leadership had supported Britain’s entry into the war for the sake of fellow Catholic nations, Belgium and Poland, which, in Redmond’s words, were “subjected to the intolerable military despotism of Germany”. Lloyd George argued: “Ireland, through its representatives, assented to the war, voted for the war, supported the war. The Irish representatives, and Ireland, through its representatives, without a dissentient voice, committed the empire to this war. They are fully as responsible for it as any part of the United Kingdom. ”
Lloyd George continued by refuting the claims that the war was an English one and not Irish. This was, he said, ‘absolutely and definitely untrue....Ireland's highest national interests are at stake. The fact that America is in this war is the best proof of that. There are more Irishmen in the United States of America than there are in Ireland. They are all subject to conscription.’
Additionally, Lloyd George reasoned there was another crisis which now needed to be addressed through conscription – the degraded state of the Irish regiments of the British army. “Irish battalions and divisions,” he stated, “have maintained the high honour and repute of their native land. But those battalions are sadly depleted, and they are now filled, or half filled, with Englishmen.”
For the purpose of bringing the Irish regimental battalions up to full strength with the necessary compliment of Irish recruits, Lloyd George declared his intention to extend the Military Service Act to Ireland on the same conditions as those in Britain
This was a particularly menacing proposition, and the voices of protesting IPP members now grew to a deafening din. “That is a declaration of war against Ireland,” William O’Brien exclaimed. The prime minister then countered with a proposal to invite the house to pass a simultaneous measure for self-government in Ireland; Lloyd George reasoned this should be the carrot to accompany the stick. It did not have the intended effect, but, rather, soured the Irish MPs further. “You can keep it! You can keep both!” yelled Alfie Byrne.
The former prime minister, Herbert Asquith, then intervened to deliver a clumsy and poorly-constructed lecture on the regrettable importance of “making Amiens, and all that Amiens means to Great Britain and to France” the primary focus of their attention through “a supreme and sustained effort”. His speech was met with a dull resentful silence; no Irish MP interjected. Afterwards, Joe Devlin moved to adjourn.
What followed during the long evening session that preceded the vote was a series of remonstrances delivered by the IPP leadership. Devlin stated: “You want to conscript Ireland because you poisoned the national life of the country by the methods by which you handled the question of voluntary recruiting.” He then delivered a fateful warning. “Those whom the Gods intend to destroy, they first make mad, and you will be mad if you enforce conscription in Ireland!”
Captain Stephen Gwynn, after defending the honour of his countrymen from an accusation of cowardice by an independent member and having signed up himself to fight, regretted the report from the Irish Convention, upon which he had laboured for nearly a year, was little more than “waste paper” now that conscription had been proposed.
The leader of the IPP, John Dillon, was the strongest in his condemnation. He accused the prime minister of dangling conscription over Ireland “like the sword of Damocles”, thus destroying any hope for a peaceful settlement of the Irish Question. Dillon concluded: “In the long history of the fatuous mistakes which have cursed the connection between these two countries, and embittered our race, in the long history of the blunders which have destroyed the good feeling in Ireland . . . nothing has been done more silly, more unthinkable, more unworthy, than the proposal which we are now considering.”
‘John Dillon...fought back in an angry speech. The British would not get a single soldier from such a bill; on the contrary ‘ all Ireland as one man will rise against you’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p277
JP Farrell, a Dillonite stalwart, reinforced his leader’s remarks with a tribute to the late Redmond: “I think the way in which our late lamented leader, Mr Redmond, was treated during his life, and is even being treated after his death, is a shocking commentary on any dealings whatsoever by Irishmen with the British Government.
Perhaps the most interesting contribution that evening was the speech delivered by the Unionist leader, Sir Edward Carson, who rose just before the house divided. He had silently observed the proceedings with unease. The realisation that he was witnessing the demise of the old opposition made plain a painful reality; revolution and partition were now inevitable. He regretted that the government were now mixing the conscription issue with the question of Home Rule. “Conscription for Ireland,” he argued, “is either right or wrong. If it be right, it is not propped up by Home Rule. If it be wrong, it is no longer propped up by Home Rule. I warn the government that they may be raising two agitations – one against conscription and a second in regard to Home Rule.”
The ayes in favour were 299, against 80 noes. After nearly nine gruelling hours, the Bill was ordered and the house adjourned. What might have been going through the minds of the Irish parliamentarians as they wandered sheepishly through the corridors of Westminster Palace, on their way to their public houses, hostels or to Euston Station to take the night mail to Holyhead? Was it the long anti-conscription campaign that now lay ahead of them? Was it the grim prognosis for their political survival in the coming general election? Perhaps it was more what was left behind, than what lay ahead. Their party had suffered a death blow from a government they had supported through four long years of war. Redmond’s legacy was in tatters, and the objective of Home Rule now appeared insignificant. Revolution, whether by politics or violence, seemed the only course that any committed Irish nationalist could adopt, and Britain, in its effort to secure victory on the Western Front, had lost the battle for Ireland.
The Irish Parliamentary Party representative in the US, T.P.O’Connor, cabled President Wilson protesting the British plan to force conscription in Ireland:
‘conscription will paralyse friends and encourage bitterest enemies in this country. This insane blunder would again render futile best efforts of Irish leaders everywhere...your knowledge (of) American opinion will suggest to you effect in this country’
Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Independence 1866-1922’. Devin-Adair. 1957. p.244
While Mr O’Connor may have held these views on conscription, he was firmly of the opinion that Ireland ‘should contribute her due proportion of the fighting forces of the Allies’ ...and that the actual raising of military forces in Ireland should be the task of an Irish, and not an English Parliament.
General Smuts, who had joined the War Cabinet in June, wrote to the Prime Minister:
‘..for the sake of the country and the British Empire, Parliament should not be asked to waste its time on Home Rule and conscription ‘in the present temper of Ireland’ should not be enforced’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p277
The Irish Independent editorial headline 'The Conscription Threat' stated:
"The Irish people are acting with their eyes open. They will consent to no bargaining with or trucking to, a Prime Minister who, to borrow the words of a Party organ, has shown 'a tendency towards trickery in all situations of political difficulty' and had ‘committed himself to a policy of despotism, naked and unashamed'.
The Belfast Newsletter, on the other hand, defends the decision on the grounds that the arguments for treating Ireland in the same way as England and Scotland in such matters as national defence are ‘unanswerable’. The newspaper, echoing wider unionist sentiment, questioned the reintroduction of the Home Rule issue, which the Prime Minister stated would be revisited on the back on the workings of the Convention. This was despite the fact that Lloyd George remarked that the questions of conscription and self-government for Ireland ‘will not hang together’ and that ‘each must be taken on its merits’.
In a letter to the Freeman’s Journal, writer Arthur Conan Doyle wrote from his Sussex home that while Britain was ‘sending her last man and her last pound to hold the murderer off from his victim’, Ireland was to be found ‘fat as butter, wrangling over her parish pump’. Conan Doyle asked as to the whereabout of Ireland’s sense of ‘decency and dignity’ and remarked that her ‘petty grievances’ were nothing against the ‘terrific world questions with which we are confronted’.
Maynooth: The Episcopal Standing Committee of the Irish Hierarchy meeting in Maynooth, issued a protest against Conscription and sections of Irish society that had previously supported the British war effort, were equaly hostile against any possibility of conscription in Ireland
Western Front: A new German attack began in Flanders. It’s aim, Hazebrouck, the key to the Channel
Ports, it’s capture and halting the re-supply of Allied armies. German launch 'Georgette' offensive against British at Lys.
The Irish Convention, after approving it’s report, passed into history.
‘conscription will paralyse friends and encourage bitterest enemies in this country. This insane blunder would again render futile best efforts of Irish leaders everywhere...your knowledge (of) American opinion will suggest to you effect in this country’
Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Independence 1866-1922’. Devin-Adair. 1957. p.244
While Mr O’Connor may have held these views on conscription, he was firmly of the opinion that Ireland ‘should contribute her due proportion of the fighting forces of the Allies’ ...and that the actual raising of military forces in Ireland should be the task of an Irish, and not an English Parliament.
General Smuts, who had joined the War Cabinet in June, wrote to the Prime Minister:
‘..for the sake of the country and the British Empire, Parliament should not be asked to waste its time on Home Rule and conscription ‘in the present temper of Ireland’ should not be enforced’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p277
The Irish Independent editorial headline 'The Conscription Threat' stated:
"The Irish people are acting with their eyes open. They will consent to no bargaining with or trucking to, a Prime Minister who, to borrow the words of a Party organ, has shown 'a tendency towards trickery in all situations of political difficulty' and had ‘committed himself to a policy of despotism, naked and unashamed'.
The Belfast Newsletter, on the other hand, defends the decision on the grounds that the arguments for treating Ireland in the same way as England and Scotland in such matters as national defence are ‘unanswerable’. The newspaper, echoing wider unionist sentiment, questioned the reintroduction of the Home Rule issue, which the Prime Minister stated would be revisited on the back on the workings of the Convention. This was despite the fact that Lloyd George remarked that the questions of conscription and self-government for Ireland ‘will not hang together’ and that ‘each must be taken on its merits’.
In a letter to the Freeman’s Journal, writer Arthur Conan Doyle wrote from his Sussex home that while Britain was ‘sending her last man and her last pound to hold the murderer off from his victim’, Ireland was to be found ‘fat as butter, wrangling over her parish pump’. Conan Doyle asked as to the whereabout of Ireland’s sense of ‘decency and dignity’ and remarked that her ‘petty grievances’ were nothing against the ‘terrific world questions with which we are confronted’.
Maynooth: The Episcopal Standing Committee of the Irish Hierarchy meeting in Maynooth, issued a protest against Conscription and sections of Irish society that had previously supported the British war effort, were equaly hostile against any possibility of conscription in Ireland
Western Front: A new German attack began in Flanders. It’s aim, Hazebrouck, the key to the Channel
Ports, it’s capture and halting the re-supply of Allied armies. German launch 'Georgette' offensive against British at Lys.
The Irish Convention, after approving it’s report, passed into history.
Dublin: H.E. Duke, Chief Secretary for Ireland sent a telegram to Lloyd George advising that ‘DeValera was counsling the Sinn Fein organisations to oppose conscription, by strikes of transport workers and shootings of soldeirs and police. The Cabinet spent two minutes on this. The P.M. remarked ‘That is a thing the Home Forces must see to. They have tried dock strikes here also, and we must make it clear to every dock labourer if he isnt working at the docks, he will be in the army…’
Thomas Jones. Whitehall Diary. Vol III – Ireland 1918-1925. Oxford University Press 1971. P2.
In another cable to President Wilson on Irish conscription, the former US Ambassador to Denmark and ‘an outstanding Irish-American’ Maurice Egan said ‘the consensus was that conscription, if applied in Ireland, would awaken the most terrible resistance. More over the effect on the Irish in this country will be bad’
Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Independence 1866-1922’. Devin-Adair. 1957. p.244
Government ministers formed a cabinet committee to supervise the drafting of Home Rule as recommended by the Convention. The committee was chaired by Walter Long, self-claimed to be the best informed person on Irish affairs, also a champion of federalism, a lifelong Unionist and committed adversary of Home Rule. In particular his manipulative interpretation of the negotiated agreement in July 1916 between Redmond and Carson had created an ambiguity which caused them to repudiate it.
Cork: The Cork Examiner, which had believed the idea that military conscription was a non - starter two days earlier, now called the plans by the government as little short of 'ingenuity'. Moreover, the editorial conceded that the proposals had been 'elaborately thought out, complete in every detail, and quite in accordance with the orders that the Anti-Irish Press has issued to the Government, possibly with the connivance of the latter'.
Thomas Jones. Whitehall Diary. Vol III – Ireland 1918-1925. Oxford University Press 1971. P2.
In another cable to President Wilson on Irish conscription, the former US Ambassador to Denmark and ‘an outstanding Irish-American’ Maurice Egan said ‘the consensus was that conscription, if applied in Ireland, would awaken the most terrible resistance. More over the effect on the Irish in this country will be bad’
Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Independence 1866-1922’. Devin-Adair. 1957. p.244
Government ministers formed a cabinet committee to supervise the drafting of Home Rule as recommended by the Convention. The committee was chaired by Walter Long, self-claimed to be the best informed person on Irish affairs, also a champion of federalism, a lifelong Unionist and committed adversary of Home Rule. In particular his manipulative interpretation of the negotiated agreement in July 1916 between Redmond and Carson had created an ambiguity which caused them to repudiate it.
Cork: The Cork Examiner, which had believed the idea that military conscription was a non - starter two days earlier, now called the plans by the government as little short of 'ingenuity'. Moreover, the editorial conceded that the proposals had been 'elaborately thought out, complete in every detail, and quite in accordance with the orders that the Anti-Irish Press has issued to the Government, possibly with the connivance of the latter'.
Cork: The Cork Examiner attacked the Home Secretary's statement that Irish MP's were not the true voice of Ireland, and because of this, Britain or Westminster could decide solely if conscription were to be imposed on Ireland or not. The editorial believed this was nothing short of 'mediaeval tyranny'.
The Belfast correspondent of the Morning Post looked at the issue in a completely different way. In clarification, the suggestion was that if Lloyd George wanted to link Home Rule with conscription, he would only cause untold damage to himself and his government. Northern Unionists concerned themselves also with the hundreds of thousands of men engaged in war work and food production that they considered as important as fighting, with the view that the upheaval of enforcing this conscription policy would create more problems than it would solve.
The Belfast correspondent of the Morning Post looked at the issue in a completely different way. In clarification, the suggestion was that if Lloyd George wanted to link Home Rule with conscription, he would only cause untold damage to himself and his government. Northern Unionists concerned themselves also with the hundreds of thousands of men engaged in war work and food production that they considered as important as fighting, with the view that the upheaval of enforcing this conscription policy would create more problems than it would solve.
Haig issues 'Backs to the wall' call.
As Ludendorf broadened the German offensive and broke through the Allied lines at Ypres and further north, Sir Douglas Haig, the British Commander-in-Chief issued this personal message to all ranks. 'Every position must be held to the last man; there must be no retirement. With our backs to the wall and believing in the justice of our cause, each one of us must fight on to the end'. In three weeks, the Allies had lost 400,000 men, the Germans substantially less though most of their losses were highly trained elite shock troops. The Kaiser issued a rallying call to his army 'Everyone out here staking everything; everyone know and trusts we shall win everything' |
Washington: President Wilson replied to Maurice Egan saying that he realised the ‘critical significance’ of the conscription issue and he wished ‘that there were some proper way’ in which he could help ‘to guide matters, but, so far, unfortunately, none has opened before me’
Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Independence 1866-1922’. Devin-Adair. 1957. p.244
Dundalk Jail: Diarmuid Lynch writing to his sister Mary:
Dundalk Jail
12.4.18
‘Just a line to say the cake and butter arrived promptly. Many thanks.
The Easter butter never reached but don’t worry about it. Theres no use.
By today’s papers I see that most of the boys are on hunger strike. I expected this. I hope that will not be compelled to continue it long - knowing as I do that they will fight to a finish. Send them word to drink water – if they are not already doing so.
Hoping to have word from you soon & with love to Dan, Tim & self.
Diarmuid’
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 4/32
Co. Clare: In the early hours of Friday, April 12, a German U-Boat surfaced off the coast of Co. Clare, and Portlaoishe native, Joseph Dowling left the submarine in a small rubber dingy, landing on the beach at Crab Island, half a mile off the coast. There, he attempted to destroy the dingy but realising that he was not on the mainland of Co. Clare, he managed to get the attention of a passing fishing boat and got a lift to Doolin Point. However he had already been spotted by Coast Guard James O'Brien on Crab Island, and when he arrived at Doolin Point he was arrested and taken to the local Coastguard Station.
There, Dowling claimed that he had been shipwrecked from an American vessel and had been able to land in the little dingy on the island. The officer in charge was unimpressed and decided to send Dowling on to Galway to be interviewed by a senior Naval Officer. Quite bizzarely, Dowling was told to make his own way to Galway and buy his own ticket at Ennistymon railway station. It was a long walk to Ennistymon , but he got a lift from a passing horse and cart. He reached the town but was spotted by a Police Sergeant, who also took him to the barracks for questioning. Joe stuck to his story that he had been shipwrecked and said he had a note from the coastguard at Doolin Point to proceed to Galway and see the Senior Naval Officer. The police decided to escort him to Galway, and there Dowling was interviewed by Commander Francis Hanan. Commander Hanan had aparently already been informed about Joe Dowling's suspicioous arrival in Ireland. An armed trawler had been sent to the area off Crab Island and had found neither ship wreckage nor other survivors. They did find the German dingy that Dowling had used to get ashore.
There, Dowling claimed that he had been shipwrecked from an American vessel and had been able to land in the little dingy on the island. The officer in charge was unimpressed and decided to send Dowling on to Galway to be interviewed by a senior Naval Officer. Quite bizzarely, Dowling was told to make his own way to Galway and buy his own ticket at Ennistymon railway station. It was a long walk to Ennistymon , but he got a lift from a passing horse and cart. He reached the town but was spotted by a Police Sergeant, who also took him to the barracks for questioning. Joe stuck to his story that he had been shipwrecked and said he had a note from the coastguard at Doolin Point to proceed to Galway and see the Senior Naval Officer. The police decided to escort him to Galway, and there Dowling was interviewed by Commander Francis Hanan. Commander Hanan had aparently already been informed about Joe Dowling's suspicioous arrival in Ireland. An armed trawler had been sent to the area off Crab Island and had found neither ship wreckage nor other survivors. They did find the German dingy that Dowling had used to get ashore.
As no ship was reported wrecked or missing, he was suspected as a spy and placed under arrest. Shipped to London, he was interrogated for a number of days until he admitted that he was Corporal Robert J Dowling of the 2nd Connaught Rangers, had been one of Casement’s three lieutenants and a member of the Irish Brigade. He claimed to have been sent from Germany in a U-boat with instructions to get in touch with Sinn Fein leaders, find out the state of affairs in Ireland and return to Germany via Norway. A German ‘expedition’ would set up three weeks after his return. The Sinn Fein leaders were unaware of his arrival and had not requested it. He was next imprisoned in the Tower pending a courts martial. A full report was presented to Lord Geddes, First Lord of the Admiralty. This incident became known as ‘The German Plot’ – a German plan to attack Britain through Ireland.
More information here.
Killarney: Piaras Béaslaí, editor of Fáinne an Lae – the official organ of the Gaelic League – was charged with inciting persons to engage in unlawful assembly and unlawful drilling, and with obstructing the police in the execution of their duties In the Northern Police Court, Mr O’Flaherty of the Chief Crown Solicitor’s Office, prosecuting, said that Béaslaí delivered a speech in Killarney on 17 March in the presence of 2,000-3,000 people, among them upwards of 100 Volunteers in uniform. In the course of the speech the accused allegedly incited the people to engage in unlawful drilling. The accused further proposed a resolution in reference to the sovereign independence of Ireland and stated that Ireland had as good a right to independence as Belgium, France or Germany. When Mr O’Flaherty related this information to the judge, Béaslaí intervened to remark: ‘Hear, hear.’ The judge was unwilling to send Béaslaí to prison, instead offering him the alternative of being bound to the peace for two years in £50 bail. But Béaslaí rejected the offer, stating that as a soldier of the Irish Republic he did not recognise a court set up by a foreign government. He was then sentenced to four months’ imprisonment
London: In Cabinet the Home Rule Bill proposed for Ireland caused some partisan argument. Lord Derby announced that he would gradually reduce the Irish reserve Battalions in Ireland and replace them with British to pre-empt any local mutinies from Irish troops.
What was to be the final Zeppelin raid on England takes place.
Western Front: Battle of Hazebrouck, & Battle of Bailleul, a phase of Operation Georgette begins.
More information here.
Killarney: Piaras Béaslaí, editor of Fáinne an Lae – the official organ of the Gaelic League – was charged with inciting persons to engage in unlawful assembly and unlawful drilling, and with obstructing the police in the execution of their duties In the Northern Police Court, Mr O’Flaherty of the Chief Crown Solicitor’s Office, prosecuting, said that Béaslaí delivered a speech in Killarney on 17 March in the presence of 2,000-3,000 people, among them upwards of 100 Volunteers in uniform. In the course of the speech the accused allegedly incited the people to engage in unlawful drilling. The accused further proposed a resolution in reference to the sovereign independence of Ireland and stated that Ireland had as good a right to independence as Belgium, France or Germany. When Mr O’Flaherty related this information to the judge, Béaslaí intervened to remark: ‘Hear, hear.’ The judge was unwilling to send Béaslaí to prison, instead offering him the alternative of being bound to the peace for two years in £50 bail. But Béaslaí rejected the offer, stating that as a soldier of the Irish Republic he did not recognise a court set up by a foreign government. He was then sentenced to four months’ imprisonment
London: In Cabinet the Home Rule Bill proposed for Ireland caused some partisan argument. Lord Derby announced that he would gradually reduce the Irish reserve Battalions in Ireland and replace them with British to pre-empt any local mutinies from Irish troops.
What was to be the final Zeppelin raid on England takes place.
Western Front: Battle of Hazebrouck, & Battle of Bailleul, a phase of Operation Georgette begins.
The Irish Convention report was published.
It recommended that an Irish scheme of self-government be immediately brought into being. However, less than half the Convention – 44 members out of 89 – supported this recommendation, while a minority report signed by 22 nationalists (among them 3 bishops, Joseph Devlin, William Martin Murphy and the Lord Mayors of Cork and Dublin) asked for full Dominion Home Rule, with full powers over taxation. The number who voted for self-government of one form or another was 66. According to the chairman of the Convention, Sir Horace Plunkett, the principal bones of contention related to Ulster and customs. Interestingly, the Convention also voted by 54 to 17 that conscription could not be applied to Ireland without the consent and cooperation of an Irish parliament. The recommendations of the main report provide, firstly, for the creation of an ‘Irish Parliament for an undivided Ireland’, with a Senate to comprise 64 members and a Commons of 160 members. Unionists are to be guaranteed 40% of Commons membership, while Ireland was to retain 42 representatives at Westminster. Secondly, the report recommended that ‘consideration of Irish control of Customs and Excise...be postponed till after the war, and decided by the UK Parliament’; and thirdly, that the Irish parliament was to have no power affecting the Crown, peace and war, the armed forces, treaties, coinage etc.’ However, in its conclusions, the Irish Convention exposed the very constitutional fault-lines that had given rise to its establishment in the first place. Ulster unionists in their own report, protested the ‘implication in the main report that a measure of agreement regarding Irish self-government had been attained’ and they contested the idea that compulsory service could not be imposed on Ireland unless it had the consent of the Irish parliament. ‘Perhaps’, Sir Horace Plunkett observed in a letter to the Prime Minister, ‘unanimity was too much to expect. Be that as it may, neither time nor effort was spared in striving for that goal, and there were moments when its attainment seemed possible. There was, however, a portion of Ulster where a majority claimed that if Ireland had the right to separate herself from the rest of the United Kingdom, they had the same right to separation from the rest of Ireland.’ The Irish Convention was widely reported in the nation’s newspapers, amongst the results were the appointment of an Ulster Committee on the Irish Parliament with powers to exclude Ulster from the operation of some legislative measures, the relocation of some parliamentary functions to Belfast with alternative meetings of the Irish Parliament there. ‘Exclusion was the only scheme to which they would permit their delegates to agree’ Dorothy Macardle. ‘The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin. 1951. p.245 |
Dublin: In a secret report to Cabinet, the R.I.C Police report on Ireland said:
‘In March (1918), it was reported that ‘the Republican and mischievous doctrine publicly preached by Sinn Fein and disseminated by its journals’ was having a great influence upon the younger generation. ‘Mere boys now defy the Police, and when charged in Court, declare themselves citizens of the Irish Republic, or soldiers of the Irish Republican Army and refuse to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the magistrates’. Recruiting had dropped to 579 for the Army and Navy. The Sinn Fein Clubs had been increased to 1025 Clubs and 81,200 members...the Irish Volunteers could muster double the 15,000 actually observed’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p269-270
The Chief Secretary, Mr Duke issued a memorandum to the War Cabinet in which he said a crisis was imminent, with only two ways of meeting it: widespread arrests or Home Rule in a trade off for conscription. He recommended the latter and should the Government choose Home Rule in return for conscription, he requested to be replaced.
Dr Patrick McCartan, a native of Co. Tyrone and based in the United States, was returned as MP for North King’s County.He was unopposed in the contest when, in light of the uproar over conscription, the Irish Party’s proposed candidate, John Dooly withdrew at the request of his own supporters. Mr Dooly said he had been confident of success. A large force of RIC men assembled at the courthouse in Tullamore as the result was announced to the cheers of a large crowd of Dr McCartan’s supporters. William T. Cosgrave, elected MP for Kilkenny the previous year, was in attendance and declared that the result showed that ‘the Irish are a distinct people who do not accept alien domination’. A telegram was sent to Dr. McCartan in Washington bearing a short message from Sinn Féin President Éamon de Valera. It read: ‘Congratulations, Offaly unanimously accredits you for Ireland. Lord Mayor of Dublin coming on conscription.’ Sinn Féin now held 6 seats which they left unoccupied in Westminster, due to their abstentionist policy.
Western Front: the German advance had reached the stage where Allied Generals were making plans to evacuate and demolish Calais, and the flooding of all the country west of Dunkirk. General Haig issued his General Order ‘ Every position must be held to the last man: there must be no retirement. With our backs to the wall and believing in the justice of our cause, each one of us must fight on to the end’
The battle was to continue for another 16 days.
In the US, the Irish Parliamentary Party representative, T.P.O’Connor wrote to Senator Phelan on conscription, fearing that it could not be ‘carried out without bloodshed...in the conflict between the Irish population and the English military forces that women and quite likely children will be killed as well as men...I am strongly of the opinion that it will dreadfully inflame the Irish race in America and Australia...I suggest having you consider appropriateness of laying these aspects of the case before the President in the hope that it will bring about in London, a reversal of the plan for conscription.’
Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Independence 1866-1922’. Devin-Adair. 1957. p.244
Working class loyalists in Belfast protested against the introduction of a conscription bill to Ireland. 8,000 met in protest on the Custom House steps in Belfast. The growing disillusion with the war was evident.
The Catholic Bishop of Cork, Doctor Cohalan, wrote a letter to his diocese, which was read at all masses, condemning conscription.
The Catholic Bishop of Cork, Doctor Cohalan, wrote a letter to his diocese, which was read at all masses, condemning conscription.
The first meeting of the Committee on the Irish Bill was held in Downing Street.
What Sir Horace Plunkett and the Convention failed to accomplish in months of talk, the Government achieved in less than a week as both Nationalists and Unionists rallied against the Conscription bill. Sir Edward Carson declaring that the government by their secretive actions, were causing grave anxiety in Ireland, playing fast and loose with both parties.
Cork: The Catholic Bishop of Cork, Doctor Cohalan addressed a demonstration in which he asked those present to support the conference that had been called by Dublin's Lord Mayor, Laurence O'Neill, to be held in Dublin's Mansion House the following Thursday with this call:
"...wait until the joint leaders determine the policy to be adopted. And out of evil, good may emanate: the divided sections of Nationalism may combine again into a united body which nothing can resist..."
What Sir Horace Plunkett and the Convention failed to accomplish in months of talk, the Government achieved in less than a week as both Nationalists and Unionists rallied against the Conscription bill. Sir Edward Carson declaring that the government by their secretive actions, were causing grave anxiety in Ireland, playing fast and loose with both parties.
Cork: The Catholic Bishop of Cork, Doctor Cohalan addressed a demonstration in which he asked those present to support the conference that had been called by Dublin's Lord Mayor, Laurence O'Neill, to be held in Dublin's Mansion House the following Thursday with this call:
"...wait until the joint leaders determine the policy to be adopted. And out of evil, good may emanate: the divided sections of Nationalism may combine again into a united body which nothing can resist..."
(All cuttings from The Daily Telegraph. April 15, 1918)
The “Military Service Bill” authorising increased conscription, passed in Parliament 301 votes to 103. The entire Irish Parliamentary Party voted against it and withdrew in protest from the House of Commons and returned to Ireland.
The Lord Lieutenant, Lord French commenting on the Military Service Bill ‘Home Rule will be offered and declined, then conscription will be enforced. If they will leave me alone to do what is necessary. I shall notify a date before which recruits must offer themselves in the various districts. If they do not come, we will fetch them’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.44
The prospect of All-Ireland Home Rule being introduced led Carson to agree with Nationalists – that Ireland had suffered from nothing in its history as much as the 'broken pledges of British statesmen'. In contrast he supported conscription, because he saw no more detestable domination than that which the Germans were trying to impose.
The Chief Secretary, Duke, circulated a more desperate memo to the War Cabinet. Reporting that there was a possibility of the Irish Parliamentary Party and the ‘revolutionists’ setting up a Provisional Government and if it was not immediately made clear that no conscription would take place until Parliament had thoroughly examined Home Rule, he wished to resign.
The timing of his resignation may appear to be a matter of principle: in fact, it had been expected for months. Lord Wimbourne was also advised of his replacement but raised no objections. The Cork Examiner suggested that Duke's legal mind was the deciding factor, agreeing with Duke when he declared that the shooting of Orangemen who resisted the law was murder, in parallel to what the government proposed.
Meanwhile in Ireland, tension was running high. Desmond Ryan described the athmosphere:
‘Feeling at white heat. Dublin has been lit with an electric resentment. Insurection permeates the athmosphere. Not since 1916 has there been such feeling abroad’
Liz Curtis ‘The Cause of Ireland – from the United Irishmen to Partition’. Beyond the Pale, Belfast 1994. p300
Sir Eric Geddes, First Lord of the Admiralty circulated a memo on Corp.Robert J Dowling’s capture off the coast of Clare to the War Cabinet. Apparently the Cabinet were ‘unpreturbed’. At Dowling’s Court Martial, he made no statement and no evidence was produced of any conspiracy between Germany and Ireland. He was sentenced to penal servitude for life. As it turned out, he was released after six years.
At Gortalea in Co. Kerry, Volunteers raided a police barracks for arms. The police opened fire killing John Brown and Robert Laide.
Spike Milligan, comedian, poet and writer born in India. (died 2002 in England).
Meanwhile, the Editor of The Western News, the Southern Unionist and Conservative, Mr. William Hastings penned a warning note to the Chief Secretary enclosing a handbill 'Down with Conscription' with the suggestion that 'surely something could be done through me' It's not known what the response on 19 April was. Hastings was, by all accounts, a rather obnoxious and litigious individual -a number of cases are recorded being brought by and against him in 1917, the more notorious when he brought a six year old boy to court for pilfering a single copy of 'The Western News'. Hardly surprisingly, the Judge threw the case out.
The Lord Lieutenant, Lord French commenting on the Military Service Bill ‘Home Rule will be offered and declined, then conscription will be enforced. If they will leave me alone to do what is necessary. I shall notify a date before which recruits must offer themselves in the various districts. If they do not come, we will fetch them’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.44
The prospect of All-Ireland Home Rule being introduced led Carson to agree with Nationalists – that Ireland had suffered from nothing in its history as much as the 'broken pledges of British statesmen'. In contrast he supported conscription, because he saw no more detestable domination than that which the Germans were trying to impose.
The Chief Secretary, Duke, circulated a more desperate memo to the War Cabinet. Reporting that there was a possibility of the Irish Parliamentary Party and the ‘revolutionists’ setting up a Provisional Government and if it was not immediately made clear that no conscription would take place until Parliament had thoroughly examined Home Rule, he wished to resign.
The timing of his resignation may appear to be a matter of principle: in fact, it had been expected for months. Lord Wimbourne was also advised of his replacement but raised no objections. The Cork Examiner suggested that Duke's legal mind was the deciding factor, agreeing with Duke when he declared that the shooting of Orangemen who resisted the law was murder, in parallel to what the government proposed.
Meanwhile in Ireland, tension was running high. Desmond Ryan described the athmosphere:
‘Feeling at white heat. Dublin has been lit with an electric resentment. Insurection permeates the athmosphere. Not since 1916 has there been such feeling abroad’
Liz Curtis ‘The Cause of Ireland – from the United Irishmen to Partition’. Beyond the Pale, Belfast 1994. p300
Sir Eric Geddes, First Lord of the Admiralty circulated a memo on Corp.Robert J Dowling’s capture off the coast of Clare to the War Cabinet. Apparently the Cabinet were ‘unpreturbed’. At Dowling’s Court Martial, he made no statement and no evidence was produced of any conspiracy between Germany and Ireland. He was sentenced to penal servitude for life. As it turned out, he was released after six years.
At Gortalea in Co. Kerry, Volunteers raided a police barracks for arms. The police opened fire killing John Brown and Robert Laide.
Spike Milligan, comedian, poet and writer born in India. (died 2002 in England).
Meanwhile, the Editor of The Western News, the Southern Unionist and Conservative, Mr. William Hastings penned a warning note to the Chief Secretary enclosing a handbill 'Down with Conscription' with the suggestion that 'surely something could be done through me' It's not known what the response on 19 April was. Hastings was, by all accounts, a rather obnoxious and litigious individual -a number of cases are recorded being brought by and against him in 1917, the more notorious when he brought a six year old boy to court for pilfering a single copy of 'The Western News'. Hardly surprisingly, the Judge threw the case out.
Western Front: First Battle of Kemmelberg, a phase of Operation Georgette.
The Military Service Bill becomes law.
In Parliament, Lord Dunraven 'a very ardent Home Ruler' explained that Ireland's anti-conscription stance was largely due to British 'refugees' that had fled there to avoid military service. An equally ardent Unionist, Lord Beresford disagreed, saying that the reason lay with the British Government 'whose policy towards Ireland for the last ten years had brought them into contempt'
Anti-Conscription Conference, Mansion House
A two day conference of political representatives to launch a campaign against conscription of Irishmen into the British armed forces was convened by Lord Mayor Laurence O’Neill at the Mansion House, Dublin.
Less than two years after the Easter Rising, this campaign was to be an effective method of gaining public support and participation. Ireland was now increasingly radicalised and the threat of conscription united all Nationalist factions in a common cause.
Leaders of the Irish Parliamentary Party (Dillon & Devlin) and Sinn Féin (De Valera & Griffith) were in attendance with their attention turned to a unified purpose, despite the parties having clashed in a series of by-elections over the previous 18 months. Also in attendance were William O’Brien & Timothy Michael Healy for the All-for-Ireland Party and representing Labour and the Trade Unions: Thomas Johnston, W.X. O'Brien and Michael Egan from Cork.
The Cork Examiner editorial for that Thursday summed up the aspirations of many:
"To-day is a momentous one for Ireland, and everyone who loves his country and desires her welfare will fervently pray that Divine Providence may guide in wisdom the deliberations of the political leaders who are assembling in Dublin to devise a scheme of organised resistance to the tyranny that the British Government seeks to impose on the Irish people."
The meeting began at 10 am and continued for three hours when it broke to allow a deputation consisting of John Dillon, Éamon de Valera, T.M. Healy, W. O’Brien and the Lord Mayor to travel to Maynooth to meet with Irish Catholic Hierarchy.
In spite of the plea by most of the Irish bishops to support non-violence, de Valera took a completely different view. He argued that 'passive resistance' would not be the best policy to adopt. As if to add more fire to his cause, de Valera also stated that 'the Volunteers were determined to resist in any case'.
The net effect was uniting in a common effort against conscription for Ireland, of those who had fought each other for over a decade. Sinn Fein, the Irish Parliamentary Party and the Labour Party agreeing to an anti-conscription pledge.
De Valera was not the only leader of the volunteers to strike out against the policy of passive resistance. In a memorandum from Eoin MacNeill, who had been leader of the Irish Volunteers until Easter 1916, the following measures were proposed as a way of helping those who resisted conscription:
"Direct active resistance or militant resistance i.e. when the persons liable to be taken, and others assisting them oppose force according to their ability. Indirect resistance, when persons liable be taken avoid arrest, and are assisted in this by others."
MacNeill did not end here. The third and last point called on everyone to support the Anti-Conscription Pledge. The pledge stated that everyone should do their best to protect those who were liable for active service from being arrested when refusing to enlist, and offering them shelter and food 'according to their ability'. He suggested that if any man were to be arrested, he should claim conscientious objector status, and to deny the 'validity of the conscription law as applied to Ireland'.
The meeting broke at 1pm to allow a deputation consisting of John Dillon, Éamon de Valera, T.M. Healy, W. O’Brien and the Lord Mayor to travel to Maynooth to meet with Irish Roman Catholic Hierarchy. The Hierarchy were in Maynooth at a specially convened meeting and met with the deputation who requested their support through a public statement sanctioning resistance.
The 27 bishops did just that. All signed and issued a manifesto of unambiguous support for the anti-conscription campaign pronouncing: ‘we consider that conscription forced in this way upon Ireland is an oppressive and inhuman law which Irish people have a right to resist by every means that are consonant with the law of God.’
Macardle ‘The Irish Republic’ Irish Press, Dublin. 1951. p.251
In addition, parish clergy were now instructed to read the Bishops manifesto and pledge at a public mass of intercession in every parish throughout the island the following Sunday, 21 April and allow the collection of names and subscriptions for a National Defence Fund to fight the imposition of conscription. The pledge read "Denying the right of the British government to enforce compulsory service in this country, we pledge ourselves solemnly to one another to resist conscription by the most effective means at our disposal."
The Bishops also ‘secretly decided that if the clergy were included in the Conscription Bill, a general meeting of the Irish Hierarchy would be summoned..’
Earl of Longford & T.P.O’Neill. ‘Eamon de Valera’ Gill & MacMillan. Dublin 1970. P71
When the Mansion House proceedings resumed, they did so with a statement of support from the Bishops and the conference adopted the following declaration of:
‘denying the right of the British Government to enforce compulsory service in this country, we pledge ourselves solemnly to one another to resist conscription by the most effective means at our disposal...the passing of the Conscription Bill by the British House of Commons must be regarded as a declaration of war on the Irish nation. The alternative to accepting it, as such, is to surrender our liberties and to acknowledge ourselves slaves. It is in direct violation of the rights of small nationalities to self-determination, which even the Prime Minister of England – now prepared to employ naked militarism to force his Act upon Ireland – himself officially announced as an essential condition for peace at the Peace Congress. The attempt to enforce it will be an unwarrantable aggression, which we call upon all Irishmen to resist by the most effective means at their disposal.’
Following their representation at the Mansion House, the labour movement now made its own immediate and distinctive contribution to the anti-conscription campaign. A one-day, nationwide general strike was called in protest for 23 April 1918.
Western Front: Battle of Bethune, a phase of Operation Georgette.
Dublin:
The Mansion House meeting reconvened and decided upon a series of other approaches to furthering their anti-conscription objectives. It was decided that moneys would be collected for a new Irish Defence Fund in every parish in the country. This would remain in the hands of the parish priests or local elected officials until it was decided how it should be put to use.
It was also decided that a detailed statement of Ireland’s case be put before the world. The Lord Mayor was appointed the nation’s envoy and was requested to travel to Washington and present the statement to the President of the United States in person.
London: Lord French wrote to Lloyd George following his fact finding visit to Ireland:
‘calling for 40 more aeroplanes, armed with bombs and machine guns to ‘put the fear of God into these playful young Sinn Feiners.’ The troops in Ireland now numbered 25,000, he managed to ‘scrape up’ 12,000 more, talked of martial law and then told the Prime Minister that any and every contingency could be met ‘if only we act promptly and decisively..’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p285
Cork: The Cork Examiner again attacked government policy, but in this instance utilized the war cry of 1914 - which was 'to assert the principles that military might is not necessarily right' and the paper declared its support for the pledge: "Whatever may be thought of Mr. Lloyd George's pledges, or of the promises of the Government which he is such a distinguished and typical figure, this may be said for Irishmen, that they will remain to God and Ireland true."
Westminster: The cabinet set up an Irish Committee, chaired by Walter Long and with no Irish representatives, to draft a Home Rule Bill. The Committee’s discussions mainly focused on the possibility of a federal soloution with regional parliaments for England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland –all subject to the imperial Parliament in London. The Tory’s approved it, mainly as it conceded self-Government to Ireland but also re-organised the United Kingdom.
Cork: The RIC raided MacCurtain’s home in Cork while he was in Ballingeary, West Cork inspecting the Irish Volunteer units.
The Mansion House meeting reconvened and decided upon a series of other approaches to furthering their anti-conscription objectives. It was decided that moneys would be collected for a new Irish Defence Fund in every parish in the country. This would remain in the hands of the parish priests or local elected officials until it was decided how it should be put to use.
It was also decided that a detailed statement of Ireland’s case be put before the world. The Lord Mayor was appointed the nation’s envoy and was requested to travel to Washington and present the statement to the President of the United States in person.
London: Lord French wrote to Lloyd George following his fact finding visit to Ireland:
‘calling for 40 more aeroplanes, armed with bombs and machine guns to ‘put the fear of God into these playful young Sinn Feiners.’ The troops in Ireland now numbered 25,000, he managed to ‘scrape up’ 12,000 more, talked of martial law and then told the Prime Minister that any and every contingency could be met ‘if only we act promptly and decisively..’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p285
Cork: The Cork Examiner again attacked government policy, but in this instance utilized the war cry of 1914 - which was 'to assert the principles that military might is not necessarily right' and the paper declared its support for the pledge: "Whatever may be thought of Mr. Lloyd George's pledges, or of the promises of the Government which he is such a distinguished and typical figure, this may be said for Irishmen, that they will remain to God and Ireland true."
Westminster: The cabinet set up an Irish Committee, chaired by Walter Long and with no Irish representatives, to draft a Home Rule Bill. The Committee’s discussions mainly focused on the possibility of a federal soloution with regional parliaments for England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland –all subject to the imperial Parliament in London. The Tory’s approved it, mainly as it conceded self-Government to Ireland but also re-organised the United Kingdom.
Cork: The RIC raided MacCurtain’s home in Cork while he was in Ballingeary, West Cork inspecting the Irish Volunteer units.
Dundalk Jail: Diarmuid Lynch, nearing the end of his sentence had a Deportation Order served on him.
“This threatened to interfere very seriously with his personal affairs. He was engaged to Kathleen Mary Quinn...whom he had first met in Dublin in 1914.
The Deportation Order intimated that he was to be held in custody until he was put on board a ship sailing for the United States. If he was unable to get married before he was deported, his bride, not being an American citizen, could not under war conditions, get a passport to the United States to join him there.
He applied through the prison governor for permission to have the marriage ceremony in Dundalk Jail...”
Foreword by Florence O'Donoghue to Diarmuid Lynch ‘The I.R.B. & the 1916 Rising’. Mercier Press 1957. P.x
Dublin: 1,500 trade unionists met at a special congress in the Mansion House, supporting a call from the Irish Trades Union Congress and Labour Party for a general strike on 23rd April. The ability to call a general strike placed the leadership in a position of increasing authority, but the action was considered as being somewhat a respectable demand as the Cathoic Hierarchy were in agrement. Labour leaders, Unionist Johnson and Nationalist O’Brien were appointed to the National Cabinet steering committee which had emerged at the the anti-conscription conference. On the board were Arthur Griffith, de Valera and John Dillon and Joseph Devlin from the Irish Parliamentary Party. The Women Workers Union organised a support demonstration where they marched from Liberty Hall to the City Hall. The entrire executive of the ITUC with the exception of Belfast members Cambell and Bennett supported the action. Mr William O’Brien remarked that the trade union movement would present an unbroken front and stated they opposed conscription because ‘it was sought to be forced upon them by a foreign people, and the workers would equally oppose it even if a native Parliament tried to force it. This was an attempt to exterminate the Irish race.’
Meanwhile across town, the Irish Parliamentary Party met and decided to withdraw their attendance from the House of Commons to assist the fight against conscription in Ireland. The well-attended meeting, presided over by the new party leader John Dillon, resolved that in the ‘present crisis, the highest and most immediate duty of the members of the Party is to remain in Ireland, and actively cooperate with their constituents in opposing the enforcement of compulsory military service in Ireland’.
The decision to introduce conscription without consultation was further denounced in the strongest terms. It was, another resolution stated, one of the most ‘brutal acts of tyranny and oppression that any Government can be guilty of’. The party pledged to support the decisions of the recent National Conference and committed to using the full power of its representation to defeat any attempt to enforce conscription in Ireland.
The reaction in Ulster to the anti-conscription movement has been one of fury and dismay. The Belfast Newsletter has declared the nationalist alliance as tantamount to a ‘declaration of war against England’. The constitutionalists (the IPP), the paper claims, have become no more than ‘humble followers of Mr de Valera’. Moreover, the alliance has confirmed to the unionists all their fears about the prospects for tolerance and inclusion in a self-governing Ireland. ‘The grant of self-government will not change Roman Catholic rebels into loyal men’, the Newsletter continued, ‘but it will give them the power to oppress, plunder, and endeavour to exterminate the Protestants because of their loyalty’.
Meanwhile across town, the Irish Parliamentary Party met and decided to withdraw their attendance from the House of Commons to assist the fight against conscription in Ireland. The well-attended meeting, presided over by the new party leader John Dillon, resolved that in the ‘present crisis, the highest and most immediate duty of the members of the Party is to remain in Ireland, and actively cooperate with their constituents in opposing the enforcement of compulsory military service in Ireland’.
The decision to introduce conscription without consultation was further denounced in the strongest terms. It was, another resolution stated, one of the most ‘brutal acts of tyranny and oppression that any Government can be guilty of’. The party pledged to support the decisions of the recent National Conference and committed to using the full power of its representation to defeat any attempt to enforce conscription in Ireland.
The reaction in Ulster to the anti-conscription movement has been one of fury and dismay. The Belfast Newsletter has declared the nationalist alliance as tantamount to a ‘declaration of war against England’. The constitutionalists (the IPP), the paper claims, have become no more than ‘humble followers of Mr de Valera’. Moreover, the alliance has confirmed to the unionists all their fears about the prospects for tolerance and inclusion in a self-governing Ireland. ‘The grant of self-government will not change Roman Catholic rebels into loyal men’, the Newsletter continued, ‘but it will give them the power to oppress, plunder, and endeavour to exterminate the Protestants because of their loyalty’.
The Bishops Manifesto was read from the pulpit at all parish churches throughout the country, in addition to a pledge against conscription signed at the chapel doors and subscriptions taken up for a defence fund. The pledge was signed throughout the country.
The Home Rulers united with Sinn Féin in the anti-conscription pledge of 21 April at the height of the Conscription Crisis, at the Dublin Mansion House Conference and the great one-day strike and demonstration of 23 April. Dillon believed that Lloyd George had 'let hell loose in Ireland' as part of a machiavellian plot to evade his promise to grant home rule. This radicalisation of the Home Rule movement came too late to stem the electoral swing against the Irish Parliamentary Party.
German fighter pilot Manfred von Richthofen, the "Red Baron" and "ace of aces," is shot down and killed. By the time of his death, he has claimed 80 victories. Credit for his kill is given to Canadian Captain Roy Brown, but this is disputed by others who claim that he was killed by ground fire from Australian troops. His kill total would not be exceeded until June 1941.
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In the Budget, taxes are increased and the penny post abolished.
Western Front: the Red Baron, Germany's most feared fighter pilot Baron Von Richtofen was killed in action during the second battle of the Somme. With over 80 Allied planes downed in two years, he was both renowned and hated.
Captain Karl Spindler of the Aud, after exactly two years of imprisonment was returned to Germany through a prisoner exchange in neutral Holland. On his return, he was awarded the Iron Cross First and Second Class, the Flanders Cross, the Hungarian War Medal with Swords Device, the Naval Memorial Cross, the German Remembrance Medal of the World War with Combat Badge and the Prisoner of War Medal.
Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia declare their independence from Russia as the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic.
George Barnes, the British Labour MP and member of the War Cabinet who had strongly supported Irish workers in the 1913 Lockout, now appealed to the Irish Trade Union Congress to call off the strike. He was ignored.
Western Front: the Red Baron, Germany's most feared fighter pilot Baron Von Richtofen was killed in action during the second battle of the Somme. With over 80 Allied planes downed in two years, he was both renowned and hated.
Captain Karl Spindler of the Aud, after exactly two years of imprisonment was returned to Germany through a prisoner exchange in neutral Holland. On his return, he was awarded the Iron Cross First and Second Class, the Flanders Cross, the Hungarian War Medal with Swords Device, the Naval Memorial Cross, the German Remembrance Medal of the World War with Combat Badge and the Prisoner of War Medal.
Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia declare their independence from Russia as the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic.
George Barnes, the British Labour MP and member of the War Cabinet who had strongly supported Irish workers in the 1913 Lockout, now appealed to the Irish Trade Union Congress to call off the strike. He was ignored.
Anti Conscription Strike:
Tuesday, April 23rd was the day of the nation-wide strike in Ireland, the first general strike in European History.
A 24 hour complete shutdown to demonstrate against conscription. Throughout the country, except in Belfast, shop and factories closed, trains and trams suspended, no newspapers were printed, pubs and shops closed, docks and shipping halted and even government munitions factories stopped. Throughout the island, all services were suspended with the only activity at the Punchestown races. Shops were closed, as were theatres and picture houses. Many National and Christian Brothers schools joined the stoppage and in some cases where the schools opened, the teachers found they had no pupils to instruct.
Government offices remained open as did Dublin Castle, the Stock Exchange, banks, solicitors’ offices and post offices, but this did little to change the impression of a country in shutdown or on holiday. Even William Martin Murphy's Irish Independent newspaper urged workers to come out on strike.
The general stoppage left many idle and they spent their time attending masses where they availed of the opportunity to sign the solemn pledge drafted by the Catholic hierarchy and national political leaders. An estimated 100,000 signatures were added to the pledge in the capital. On Sackville Street, the Parnell monument was bedecked in tricolours and a scroll bearing the words ‘No Conscription’ was unfurled.
The call-out was not universally observed however; work carried on as usual in Belfast and north-east Ulster with members of the trade unions ignoring the advice of their own leaders. In a number of workplaces Catholic employees were informed that should they not turn up for work their positions would be filled and they would not get them back. Ulster trade unions failed to respond to the Irish Trade Union Congress call for a nationwide strike.
'The sectarian divide would lead labour to surrender to Unionism in the north and to militant nationalism in the south. Despite the advances made after the 1913 Lockout, the Irish labour movement failed to overcome the deeply held beliefs which divided the island' Padraig Yeates. 'A City in Wartime - Dublin 1914-1918. 2011.
The strike was described as "complete and entire, an unprecedented event outside the continental countries".
Preparations for mass resistance and public protest began throughout the country.
Lloyd George after receiving a briefing on the work stoppage in Ireland made a significant statement:
‘he said that the Irish situation had raised the biggest constitutional issue ‘on which Parliament had been divided’ of the past thirty or forty years - namely the real supremacy of the Imperial Parliament. The Irish were now challenging its right to impose upon them an act which they disliked’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p281
Tuesday, April 23rd was the day of the nation-wide strike in Ireland, the first general strike in European History.
A 24 hour complete shutdown to demonstrate against conscription. Throughout the country, except in Belfast, shop and factories closed, trains and trams suspended, no newspapers were printed, pubs and shops closed, docks and shipping halted and even government munitions factories stopped. Throughout the island, all services were suspended with the only activity at the Punchestown races. Shops were closed, as were theatres and picture houses. Many National and Christian Brothers schools joined the stoppage and in some cases where the schools opened, the teachers found they had no pupils to instruct.
Government offices remained open as did Dublin Castle, the Stock Exchange, banks, solicitors’ offices and post offices, but this did little to change the impression of a country in shutdown or on holiday. Even William Martin Murphy's Irish Independent newspaper urged workers to come out on strike.
The general stoppage left many idle and they spent their time attending masses where they availed of the opportunity to sign the solemn pledge drafted by the Catholic hierarchy and national political leaders. An estimated 100,000 signatures were added to the pledge in the capital. On Sackville Street, the Parnell monument was bedecked in tricolours and a scroll bearing the words ‘No Conscription’ was unfurled.
The call-out was not universally observed however; work carried on as usual in Belfast and north-east Ulster with members of the trade unions ignoring the advice of their own leaders. In a number of workplaces Catholic employees were informed that should they not turn up for work their positions would be filled and they would not get them back. Ulster trade unions failed to respond to the Irish Trade Union Congress call for a nationwide strike.
'The sectarian divide would lead labour to surrender to Unionism in the north and to militant nationalism in the south. Despite the advances made after the 1913 Lockout, the Irish labour movement failed to overcome the deeply held beliefs which divided the island' Padraig Yeates. 'A City in Wartime - Dublin 1914-1918. 2011.
The strike was described as "complete and entire, an unprecedented event outside the continental countries".
Preparations for mass resistance and public protest began throughout the country.
Lloyd George after receiving a briefing on the work stoppage in Ireland made a significant statement:
‘he said that the Irish situation had raised the biggest constitutional issue ‘on which Parliament had been divided’ of the past thirty or forty years - namely the real supremacy of the Imperial Parliament. The Irish were now challenging its right to impose upon them an act which they disliked’
George Dangerfield “ The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish relations” Constable, London. 1977. p281
A crowd of 6,000 at Navan supporting the strike clashed with police. In Thurles, 100 members of the NUR led the protest march of 1,500 including 8 companies of Irish Volunteers and one from the Cumman na mBan, saluting the Archbishop as he greeted them. Sligo saw 2,000 people following banners and bands to the Town Hall Square where they were adderessed by the Lord Mayor. In Ulster, the day of protest was limited somewhat. In Ballycastle, a united march was led by bands alternately playing ‘The Boyne Water’ and ‘A Nation Once Again’. A rally of 3,000 were addressed in Belfast.
The Irish Volunteers now began to make detailed preparations for resistance and laying the foundations for what was later to become organised guerilla warfare. Facilities that were and would be of use to the British were noted in each area, Chaplains were appointed to each Battalion and routes planned for the movement of civilians from the main population areas.
Eoin MacNeill was reappointed to the position of Professor of Early and Medieval Irish History at the University College Dublin. The decision was taken on the unanimous recommendation of the Governing Body of the National University. The resolution was proposed by Dr George Sigerson and seconded by the Rt. Hon. Dr M. Cox. Prof. MacNeill, originally from Co. Antrim, was appointed to the UCD Chair in 1909 but was removed from the position after being arrested and imprisoned in the aftermath of the 1916 Easter Rising despite the fact that he tried to avert it. Following his release from prison in 1917, he was elected – though not without opposition – to the executive of Sinn Féin at its convention of last October. MacNeill’s article, ‘The North Began’ helped kickstart the creation of the Irish Volunteers in 1913
British attempt to blockade Ostend harbour fails.
Above: Debate on Decimalisation was had begun again in 1918 although this particular bill failed.
The Decimal Association was founded in 1841 to promote decimalisation and metrication, both causes that were boosted by a realisation of the importance of international trade following the 1851 Great Exhibition. It was as a result of the growing interest in decimalisation that the florin was issued. In their preliminary report, the Royal Commission on Decimal Coinage (1856–1857) considered the benefits and problems of decimalisation but did not draw any conclusion about the adoption of any such scheme. A final report in 1859 from the two remaining commissioners, Lord Overstone and Governor of the Bank of England John Hubbard came out against the idea, claiming it had "few merits". The UK & the Republic of Ireland were two of the last countries to adopt a decimal monetary system, although there had been discussion on and investigations into the subject since the early nineteenth century and above in April 1918. The debate, and official investigations continued into the twentieth century, by which time virtually all major and many minor economies outside both Britain and Ireland had adopted decimal systems (and had sometimes gone through a number of different systems of monetary units). The real shift towards the adoption of decimal currency occurred from the 1950s with the rise of international trade. When the old pounds, shillings, and pence system was in operation, the United Kingdom and Ireland operated within the Sterling Area, effectively a single monetary area. The Irish pound had come into existence as a separate currency in 1927 with distinct coins and notes, but the terms of the Irish Currency Act obliged the Irish currency commissioners to redeem Irish pounds on a fixed 1:1 basis, and so day-to-day banking operations continued exactly as they had been before the creation of the Irish pound The first British and Irish decimal coinage was issued in 1968 - the equivalents of the shilling and florin - 5p and 10p. The ten shilling note was replaced by a new 50p coin. This was announced (and introduced) later, in 1969. The three smaller coins, 2p, 1p and 1/2p, were introduced into general circulation on 'Decimal Day' jointly shared between Britain and Ireland on 15 February 1971 (this being one of the quieter times of year). In Ireland, all pre-decimal coins, except the 1s, 2s and 10s coins, were called in during the initial process between 1969 and 1972; the ten shilling coin, which, as recently issued and in any event equivalent to 50p, was permitted to remain outstanding (though due to silver content, the coin did not circulate). The 1s and 2s were recalled in 1993 and 1994 respectively. The Irish Currency Act continued until 1979 when Irish obligations to the European Monetary System forced the Irish Central Bank to break the historic link with Sterling. |
Dundalk: Diarmuid's application for a jail marriage was being considered by the prison authorities, but he was determined to marry before he could be deported from Ireland, and so arranged for a ‘Jail Marriage’ without the necessary authorisation from the prison authorities.
Extract from statement given by Commandant Frank Henderson - Dublin Brigade to the Bureau of Military History in 1949:
Extract from statement given by Commandant Frank Henderson - Dublin Brigade to the Bureau of Military History in 1949:
“ ...As the supervising warders were either friendly or anxious to avoid trouble, much conferences ( with outside visitors who were in fact IRA men ) were easy and the British Military did not enter the portion of the prison occupied by the prisoners.
One of the imprisoned Republicans was Diarmuid Lynch. He had been condemned to death in 1916 for his part in the rising but the death sentence was not carried out owing to the fact that he was an American citizen. After the Rising it is believed he became the head centre for the I.R.B. He was regarded by the British government as a dangerous man. On the other hand, the Volunteers held him in great esteem - and justly so - for he was a determined, unflinching soldier and an Irishman of clear vision and of great probity, forthright in his views, with a certain stubbornness at times.
The British authorities informed Lynch, while he was in Dundalk Prison, that they were about to take him from the jail and transport him to America. He asked that he be given facilities, while still in Ireland to marry his fiancee so that she could rejoin him on his arrival in America. Under the war regulations, his fiancee could not leave Ireland or enter America unless as Diarmuid’s wife. The facilities were refused.
Arrangements were made then for the marriage ceremony to take place inside the prison. Ecclesiastical permission was obtained by a Dublin priest, and, in due course, he arrived at the prison accompanied by the bride, Miss Quinn and her (half ) sister, and requested a visit to Diarmuid Lynch. The two ladies requested a visit to Michael Brennan (Clare) and myself whom they did not know. I received intimation of this about twenty minutes before the visit, and was given instructions to put my back against the door of the visiting room, carry on a pretend conversation with the bride’s sister, and, if the warder, who was always present during visits, attempted to convey to the governor what was taking place, to prevent him by force from so doing.
The ceremony was carried out without a hitch and in the presence of the necessary number of witnesses. The warder, who was a gentle type, and did not wish to listen to prisoners conversations, did not even know what had taken place. That night, before we retired to our cells, Diarmuid made the announcement of his marriage to his fellow Republicans. And, of course, word was duly conveyed to the Governor who reported to his superiors. That night, Diarmuid was taken from his cell on the first stage of his removal to the United States of America.
(Diarmuid was handed over to Sergeant Smith of the D.M.P. at 7pm for removal to Dublin and deportation )
Next morning, Michael Brennan and myself were summoned before the Governor and questioned. The only result, of which I am aware, apart from the fact that Mrs Lynch was able to follow her husband in due course to America, was that the warder who was present during the visit was dismissed from the prison service. I was told that the Republican authorities got him employment.”
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 4/34
Diarmuid and Kit were married by Fr. Aloysius Travers.
The Gaelic American, as part of it’s July 1, 1918, feature on Diarmuid Lynch gave this description of the Jail Marriage:
‘Diarmuid applied to through the Governor of the Prison, for permission to get married while in the institution. He saw at once that if he were to take his bride to America, or if she was to follow him there, the marriage ceremony would have to be performed within the un-inviting precincts of the prison, because unless the lady became an American citizen through becoming his bride, she could not secure a passport to the United States.
Knowing that the British Government could put on board a ship before the expiration of his sentence, Mr Lynch decided that there was no time to waste in a sparring match with the Prison’s Board. The board seemed to be playing the game of procrastination, so the prisoner arrived at the conclusion that permission to have the marriage ceremony performed...in the jail in Dundalk, would not be granted ....he made up his mind to get married without the consent of the Board. Diarmuid, deciding to act quickly, sent word to the prospective bride in Dublin to come to Dundalk the following day accompanied by her sister, Miss Carmel Quinn, who was to be a bridesmaid, and a friendly Catholic priest and the marriage would take place. The ladies and their reverend friend were to come to the prison as visitors. The necessary marriage licence was already in Dundalk, so after the party got admitted to the jail, the next problem was to evade the vigilance of the officials while the nuptial knot was being tied.
The Bride and her friends were instructed to make application at the prison for permission to see Diarmuid Lynch, Commandant Michael Brennan of the Clare Brigade of the Irish Volunteers...who was serving a sentence for wearing a Volunteer’s uniform and drilling his command, and Vice-Commandant Frank Henderson of the Dublin Brigade, also in prison for drilling. Diarmuid wanted Commandant Brennan to be on hand to act as Best man and the Dublin Vice-Commandant to be present to lend his moral and if necessary, physical support to the end that the ceremony would not be unnecessarily interrupted.
On the forenoon of the appointed day, shortly before 12 o’clock, the bride to be, her sister, and the sagart presented themselves at the prison gates and after the usual formalities, were admitted. The three prisoners were summoned to meet their friends, and while apparently engaged in a friendly conversation with the prisoners and the visitors, the good priest said the words making Kathleen Mary Quinn the lawfully wedded wife of Diarmuid Lynch. The visit lasted fifteen minutes but the marriage ceremony occupied less than a third of that time, so there was ample opportunity for the exchange of congratulations before the visitors time was up. The marriage occurred at noon on April 24th; at 2.30 that afternoon, the Governor of the prison, who was in blissful ignorance of what happened, informed Mr Lynch that the Prisons Board could on no account, consent to having the ceremony performed in the prison. He, however, failed to notice the smile of amusement which the prisoner could not conceal when he heard the ruling of the board.
Diarmuid’s decision to make haste was a wise one, for at the very hour that the Governor was informing him of the ruling of the magnates in Dublin Castle, arrangements were being made in Dublin.... for deportation to this country and two detectives were on their way...to carry out the plan. bout 5.30 p.m., Diarmuid decided to break the news of the marriage to the prison Governor and sent word to him that he wanted to speak to him. The Governor, when he heard the story, was at first incredulous and then astonished, perturbed, indignant and alarmed by turns. ‘This is a serious matter’ he opined, but Diarmuid remained cheerful. He concluded that even under British law, subject as it was to many vagaries, he could hardly be hanged, drawn and quartered for taking a wife, particularly as she was a brand new wife and not somebody else’s!
By a coincidence, Mrs Lynch, the bridesmaid and friends boarded the same train and entered the compartment occupied by Diarmuid and the two detectives who were removing him to Dublin in the evening, so he started the first lap of his honeymoon under an official escort. A friend of Mr Lynch is Dundalk telephoned to Dublin telling them what had occurred and saying that the party were on their way to the capital.
The result was then when the train arrived at Amiens Street station, the Food Director and his bride were greeted by an enormous crowd. The whole bridal party got into one compartment of the Black Maria ( the prison van ) accompanied by one of the detectives. Commandant De Valera and some other friends of Mr. Lynch who were at the station to greet him and Mrs Lynch took possession of the other compartments with the second detective. The detectives seemed afraid that the prisoner would be rescued if they refused a free ride to his friends, and so the party sped merrily on towards the Dublin Bridewell. As they were leaving the station, De Valera shouted to the bridegroom-prisoner ‘Diarmuid, you have set a new style in weddings, by taking your bride to the Bridewell.’”
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 4/33
The High Sheriff of the County of Cork, Philip Harold-Berry, wrote to the Prime Minister:
‘I feel it my duty as High Sheriff...to submit to you my convictions on the conscription crisis in this country... I have lived my life among the people, away from politics, my ancestors have been landlords and Unionists, my intimate friends are largely of the same class, but I do know the people in their homes, on their farms... I assure you with all the earnestness and solemnity that I can command...of every man and woman...not a trace of bluff...but a fearfully quiet, earnest determination to die rather than accept conscription from an English Parliament. Such unity as there now is, has never been known in Ireland...but I would impress on you that never before have the Irish bishops given countenance to such opposition as is now pledged’
Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Independence 1866-1922’. Devin-Adair. 1957. p.248
The Daily Chronicle reported on the general mood in the country: ‘ a fortnight ago it was quite an extreme thing in Ireland to hint at a Colonial form of Self-Government. Today the moderate men demand nothin less and in view of what has happened we must not be surprised to find them in another week or two repeating Mr. De Valera’s demand for an independent republic’
Earl of Longford & T.P.O’Neill. ‘Eamon de Valera’ Gill & MacMillan. Dublin 1970. P74
The Irish Times reported that ‘April 23rd will be chiefly remembered as the day on which Irish Labour realised it’s strength’
Western Front: Second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux, a phase of Operation Georgette.
Mauthausen is a small market town in the Austrian state of Upper Austria, located 20 kilometres east of the city of Linz. As referred to above, during the First World War, a prisoner of war camp existed to the east of Mauthausen. Italian, Serbian and Russian soldiers (at times over 40,000 POWs) were imprisoned there, around 10,000 of whom died in the camp, mostly Italians due to starvation and ill-treatment. The town is also infamous for the existence of a second camp, twenty years later - The Mauthausen–Gusen concentration camp operated from the time of the Anschluss, when Austria was annexed into the German Third Reich on 8 August 1938, to 5 May 1945, at the end of the Second World War. As at other Nazi concentration camps, the inmates at Mauthausen–Gusen were forced to work as slave labour, under conditions that caused many deaths. The subcamps of the Mauthausen complex included quarries, munitions factories, mines, arms factories and plants assembling Me 262 fighter aircraft. In January 1945, the camps contained roughly 85,000 inmates. The death toll remains unknown, although most sources place it between 122,766 and 320,000 for the entire complex.
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In Dundalk Jail, both Michael Brennan and Frank Henderson were summoned before the prison governor and questioned about Diarmuid Lynch’s marriage in the jail. The Prison Warder in charge, and who read the newspaper while the ceremony was taking place, was dismissed from the service. He was approached shortly afterwards and given employment by an I.R.B. contact.
Years later, Liam O'Carroll recalled events in Dundalk Jail in his 1951 deposition to the Bureau of Military History (BMH).
O'Carroll was Lieut. 'A' Company, 1st Battalion, Dublin 1916; Brigade, Captain/ Adjutant same Battalion, 1917-1920
http://www.bureauofmilitaryhistory.ie/reels/bmh/BMH.WS0594.pdf
Ernest Blythe (1889-1975) Organiser on staff of Volunteer Executive: Organiser for I.R.B.; Director of Trade and Commerce 1918-1922 in his 1954 deposition to the BMH:
http://www.bureauofmilitaryhistory.ie/reels/bmh/BMH.WS0939.pdf
Lieutenant General Michael Brennan, the Brigade Adjutant & Commander East Clare Brigade; Column Commander East Clare Flying Column in his 1954 BMH deposition included these recollections of Dundalk jail:
http://www.bureauofmilitaryhistory.ie/reels/bmh/BMH.WS1068.pdf
Frank Thornton was an Irish Volunteer Organiser; Deputy Assistant Director of Intelligence 1919; Director New Ireland Assurance Co. His recollections of events in Dundalk jail are more detailed in this part of the deposition made in May 1951:
http://www.bureauofmilitaryhistory.ie/reels/bmh/BMH.WS0510.pdf#page=1
Nora Thornton, sister of Frank, Member of Cumann na mBan, Liverpool, 1915 Courier to Tralee, Easter Monday, 1916,
also mentions Lynch in her 1952 deposition:
http://www.bureauofmilitaryhistory.ie/reels/bmh/BMH.WS0655.pdf#page=5
Ned Enright Member of Irish Volunteers, Pallaskenry, Co. Limerick, 1914-20 recalled briefly events in Dundalk jail in 1951:
http://www.bureauofmilitaryhistory.ie/reels/bmh/BMH.WS0823.pdf#page=3
James McGill of Co. Louth made his deposition to the BMH in February, 1950.
McGill was O/C Volunteers Dundalk 1918-19, A/Brigade O/C Louth IRA 1919-20 and Head Centre IRB Co. Louth 1919-20.
http://www.bureauofmilitaryhistory.ie/reels/bmh/BMH.WS0353.pdf#page=37
Edward Moane, Leastown, Oldtown Co. Dublin made his deposition in 1951 and had a strong opinion on the IRB in Dundalk jail.
Member Of I.R.B. Westport, 1911; Adjutant Westport Battalion I.R.A.; Vice-Comd't. West-Mayo Brigade I.R.A.
http://www.bureauofmilitaryhistory.ie/reels/bmh/BMH.WS0896.pdf#page=11
Frank Henderson, 83 Mobhi Road, Glasnevin, Dublin was one of those who attended Lynch's wedding in Dundalk. His deposition to the BMH dates from 1953.
Capt. 'F' Company, 2nd Batt'n. Dublin Brigade, Irish Volunteers, 1916; Comd't. same Company, 1918; Adjutant Dublin Brigade, 1921
http://www.bureauofmilitaryhistory.ie/reels/bmh/BMH.WS0821.pdf#page=19
Frank Henderson recalled a little more about Lynch:
The Quartermaster and member of the West Mayo Brigade, Thomas Kettrick recalled in his BMH statement made in 1953:
http://www.bureauofmilitaryhistory.ie/reels/bmh/BMH.WS0872.pdf#page=8
The deportation process began. The first stage was Diarmuid’s removal in custody from Dundalk Jail to the Dublin Bridewell.
He recalled that
He recalled that
‘On arrival at the latter point of detention, Michael Collins ( one of my co-directors on the Executive of the Irish Volunteers ) and myself were enabled to hold a private conversation during which, as mentioned in Michael Collins and the Making of a New Ireland (Beaslai) we ‘discussed methods of communication between America and Ireland’
Application for Military Service Pension Certificate ( Diarmuid Lynch) - Department of Defence Files. Lynch Archives. Sept.28 1935
Diarmuid recalled in a sworn statement 26 years later that:
When I arrived at Amiens St, there was a big force of Vols there. Harry Boland approached me and said he was prepared to attempt to get me out of their hands. I said it would involve loss of life. I wasn’t hancuffed. A big force of police were present at Amiens St. They were so scared at the time that they didn’t prevent my talking to H.Boland.
I felt all I could do would be to go on the run as I was well known throughout Ireland.
The Vols marched in front of the ‘Black Maria’. Collins and I had a 10 minute chat in the Bridewell….neither Collins, nor de Valera or Boland or Nunan ever suggested I should come back or engage in other activities in the United States…I became a member of the Vol Executive at the end of 1917 and I believe I ceased to be a member after my deportation.
I would take it that they appointed somebody in my place after my deportation…my membership of the Supreme Council of IRB lapsed in my deportation – at least I presume they appointed somebody on my place…’
Application for Military Service Pension Certificate ( Diarmuid Lynch) - Department of Defence Files. Lynch Archives. December 19, 1944.
Additional information from the DMP Prisoner books indicate that Lynch was accompanied to Liverpool by Detective Patrick 'The Dog' Smyth. In just over a year, Smyth was assassinated by Collins' 'Squad' in Drumcondra, Dublin.
The Gaelic American takes up the story of Diarmuid’s deportation:
The Gaelic American takes up the story of Diarmuid’s deportation:
‘...the following morning, Mr Lynch was removed from his temporary place of detention in Dublin (and taken) to Liverpool and Mrs Lynch insisted on accompanying him. The question of permitting her to come on the same ship with him to the United States had been taken up with the American Ambassador in London, but on her arrival in Liverpool, Mrs Lynch was taken into custody by the police of that city.
A communication was sent by Ambassador Page to the United States Consul in Dublin, who replied that the arrangements had been made for Mrs Lynch to accompany her husband, but owing to the over-officiousness of the Liverpool Police, she was sent back to Dublin.
The excuse given by the Liverpool authorities for taking Mrs Lynch into Custody was that she was an American citizen...travelling in England without a passport.’
Lynch Family Archives.
On arrival in Liverpool, Diarmuid was taken to the city centre and held in the city's Bridewell until the following day.
The Irish Independent reported:
The Irish Independent reported:
Sinn Fein Food Director ordered to leave the Kingdom
Mr Diarmuid Lynch, Sinn Fein Food Director, having served a term of two months imprisonment in Dundalk Jail, was removed in custody to Dublin last night where he awaits transportation.
Mr Lynch, who is an American citizen, was prior to the rebellion, an insurance agent in Dublin. For his part in the rebellion, he was sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted to 10 years penal servitude. After his release, he devoted his energies to the food campaign, urging on the people the necessity for keeping in the country sufficient supplies to meet their own requirements. After the recent, sensational seizure and slaughter of pigs in the city, he was arrested and sentenced in default of giving bail.’
Last Saturday he was served with an order to leave the United Kingdom and was informed that he was to remain in the custody of a constable or other person until he got on board a ship.
On arrival at Amiens Street, he was removed in a prison van to the Bridewell, accompanied by a number of friends in a motor vehicle, and surrounded by cyclists who cheered as they went along. Following the van were five DMP men on an outside car.
It is understood that Mr Lynch’s marriage took place yesterday in Dundalk.
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 4/36
(The Independent’s stablemate, The Evening Herald also reported the event:)
Diarmuid Lynch Deported
Yesterday morning, Mr. Diarmuid Lynch, Sinn Fein Food Director, who had served a term of two months imprisonment in Dundalk Jail, was deported from Ireland. He left Kingstown by the mail boat in the custody of Detective Officers Smith & Hoy, and accompanied by his bride, Miss Kathleen Mary Quinn. His destination is believed to be Liverpool, where it is expected he will be put on board a ship, probably for America. His friends however have no information as to the Government’s intentions beyond the fact that on Saturday, he was served with an order to leave the United Kingdom, the order mentioning that he would be in custody until he had left the port of embarkation.
It is not known whether Mr Lynch’s wife will be allowed to accompany him from England.
Mr Lynch, who was not afforded an opportunity to arrange for his departure or to dispose of his belongings, was removed from the Bridewell to Westland Row in a prison van guarded by police. He was met at the station by a number of friends, who travelled with him to Kingstown, and gave him a hearty send-off as the boat left.
Mr Lynch, who is an American citizen, was prior to the rebellion, an insurance agent in Dublin. For his part in the rebellion, he was sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted to 10 years penal servitude. After his release, he devoted his energies to the food campaign, urging on the people the necessity for keeping in the country sufficient supplies to meet their own requirements. After his recent, sensational seizure and slaughter of pigs in the city, he was arrested and sentenced in default of giving bail.’
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 4/37
The Defence of the Realm Act contained a clause on ‘persons of hostile origin’ providing for their internment or the restriction of their movements. On this date, the clause was extended to include persons of Irish birth.
On the same day, 17 King’s Counsels at the Irish Bar approved and adopted the Irish Hierachy’s declaration against conscription.
The Defence of the Realm Act contained a clause on ‘persons of hostile origin’ providing for their internment or the restriction of their movements. On this date, the clause was extended to include persons of Irish birth.
On the same day, 17 King’s Counsels at the Irish Bar approved and adopted the Irish Hierachy’s declaration against conscription.
De Valera presented the executive of the Irish Volunteers with a written pledge of resistance. All were to sign it or show good reason why not. All signed.
The Irish Parliamentary Party was now in disarray. Their decision to leave Parliament and fight conscription in Ireland was seen as too little too late. Many of the Party’s candidates appeared in public or on recruiting platforms in khaki uniform much to the disgust of many of their supporters.
Diarmuid Lynch was escorted from Liverpool city to the transatlantic berths, taken aboard the SS New York by two detectives and:
The Irish Parliamentary Party was now in disarray. Their decision to leave Parliament and fight conscription in Ireland was seen as too little too late. Many of the Party’s candidates appeared in public or on recruiting platforms in khaki uniform much to the disgust of many of their supporters.
Diarmuid Lynch was escorted from Liverpool city to the transatlantic berths, taken aboard the SS New York by two detectives and:
‘for the next two days was held prisoner aboard the steamship then awaiting her ‘convoy’…and found myself, the first man of American citizenship connected with the Forces [ anti-British forces in Ireland ] to be deported to the United States.’
His personal finances were held after the one way fare of £10.9.6 had first been deducted. (equivalent €655/$777 in 2017)
Diarmuid was at the time of deportation, Director of Communications on the Irish Volunteers HQ staff & Treasurer of the Supreme Council IRB. He recalled that:
Diarmuid was at the time of deportation, Director of Communications on the Irish Volunteers HQ staff & Treasurer of the Supreme Council IRB. He recalled that:
‘...had it suited the British Government even then to detain me indefinetely in an English prison (for inclusion, say among it’s intended ‘German Plot’ prisoners, or otherwise) or had it seen fit to deport me to some British colony where pro-Irish activities were unheard of and impossible, the question of subsequent occupation at military work on behalf of the Forces in Ireland could not arise.’
Application for Military Service Pension Certificate ( Diarmuid Lynch) - Department of Defence Files. Lynch Archives. March 9, 1938.
Amongst the newspapers reporting on his deportation was the Richmond Palladium & Sun Telegram of Indiana:
The Irish Nation newspaper commenting on the new order in Moscow ‘ New Russia has been wholly disinterested in the appeal she has made to the civilised world for Ireland’
Arthur Mitchell. “Revolutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-1922.” Gill & Mcmillan 1995. P189
Dublin: The Lord Mayor of Dublin, Mr Laurence O’Neill, was unable to present the case against Irish conscription to President Wilson as envisaged. The Belfast Newsletter reported that the Foreign Office may deny the city’s first citizen the passport he had applied for, and even if he had been able to depart from Ireland he may not have been able to land in America.
According to the unionist Newsletter, nationalist expectations of American sympathy would not be met. Instead, O’Neill and his anti-conscription message would be met with ‘contempt’... ‘No one who believes in the justice of the Allied cause would think of placing Ulstermen, who are doing their duty, under the Nationalists, who are now helping Germany to the best of their ability.’
Nationalists, however, were confident that the president’s mind would be so ‘judicially balanced’ that he will give them a fair hearing before reaching a conclusion. ‘The Irish people believe’, the Cork Examiner editorialised, ‘in the President’s professions, and endorse the principles he has laid down in connection with the war, and it is because they do so that they would appeal to his sense of justice against the cruel wrong that the British Government threatens to inflict on this country.’
The New Soviet Government established diplomatic relations with Germany.
Dick Dalton sent a telegram to Denis Lynch, Jones Rd Whiskey Distillery, Dublin received 8.20am:
Arthur Mitchell. “Revolutionary Government in Ireland – Dail Eireann 1919-1922.” Gill & Mcmillan 1995. P189
Dublin: The Lord Mayor of Dublin, Mr Laurence O’Neill, was unable to present the case against Irish conscription to President Wilson as envisaged. The Belfast Newsletter reported that the Foreign Office may deny the city’s first citizen the passport he had applied for, and even if he had been able to depart from Ireland he may not have been able to land in America.
According to the unionist Newsletter, nationalist expectations of American sympathy would not be met. Instead, O’Neill and his anti-conscription message would be met with ‘contempt’... ‘No one who believes in the justice of the Allied cause would think of placing Ulstermen, who are doing their duty, under the Nationalists, who are now helping Germany to the best of their ability.’
Nationalists, however, were confident that the president’s mind would be so ‘judicially balanced’ that he will give them a fair hearing before reaching a conclusion. ‘The Irish people believe’, the Cork Examiner editorialised, ‘in the President’s professions, and endorse the principles he has laid down in connection with the war, and it is because they do so that they would appeal to his sense of justice against the cruel wrong that the British Government threatens to inflict on this country.’
The New Soviet Government established diplomatic relations with Germany.
Dick Dalton sent a telegram to Denis Lynch, Jones Rd Whiskey Distillery, Dublin received 8.20am:
‘If Jerry is coming cable sailing particulars if possible. Dalton’
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 4/38
Aboard the “SS New York “, still in Liverpool, Diarmuid wrote to his sister, Mary:
‘Liverpool
Sunday Night.
My Dear Moll.
We are still here in the bay - expect to get underway tomorrow.
I have written all the news to Kit, so you will hear how things have gone. You know by this of course all the worry she had while here, well, please God, our happiness will be all the greater because of this enforced separation.
I wish I could have seen Mick, Dan and Tim before leaving, but - !!
Slan leat for the present, love to yourself and all,
Diarmuid
PS I enclose receipt for Dan ‘
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 4/39
The same day, his sister-in-law, Alice Lynch wrote to the Lynch’s Aunt Julia Ahern.
Distillery House
Dublin
28 April 1918
‘My dear Aunt Julia.
I should have written yesterday but the post goes so early (3.15pm) & we were nearly run off our feet.
However you know all up to Diarmuid’s departure and that Kattie was to arrive back on Friday morning. She came and you will be surprised to hear the Liverpool Authorities treated them disgracefully.
The Dublin detectives thought they would first have to report their arrival and that Diarmuid would be able to stay where ever they stayed, but the Liverpool men took him completely out of their charge and after he was taken away, they treated Kattie barbarously.
Our Dublin Detectives took the whole responsibility of taking Kattie over, but the more they spoke up forKattie, the worse her case seemed to get. They saw , that as it was a fact that she was married to Diarmuid, she was an alien and in a prohibited area and liable to arrest.
She was taken before five different men until finally she reached the Chief. They were going to arrest her when one of the Dublin men said that if they arrested her, they would arrest a corpse as she was on the point of collapse. Finally, however they said that she was to leave Liverpool by first train for Ireland and to remain in custody until the train left.
She was seen off by four detectives, given in charge of the guard, and put in charge of an official on the boat. She was absolutely worn out of course, but is quite revived now, but unfortunately, there is still danger of trouble until Kattie is registered as an alien, and she cannot do that until her marriage certificate arrives.
By being registered as an alien means she cannot go anywhere without reporting, like Diarmuid had to do.
How are you Auntie & all the friends?
Kattie & Carmel are with us. We are going to try and see Michael tomorrow.
Diarmuid is onboard the SS New York bound for New York. Up to last night, he had not left port, and it was not expected to leave until tomorrow
All here join in best love..
Yours affectionately,
Alice.
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 4/41
The Sunday Independent ran the following article:
‘Mr. Diarmuid Lynch
No news has so far reached the friends of Mr. Diarmuid Lynch, who was deported from Ireland on Thursday, as to his ultimate destination. On arrival at Liverpool he was handed over to the Detective Department at Lime Street, and Detectives Smith and Hoey, in whose custody he was, returned to Dublin. Mrs Lynch, who was travelling with her husband was informed that she could not see him again, and she accordingly returned.’
Sunday Independent, April 28th, 1918. Courtesy of Niamh, Cork Public Museum. Lynch Family Archives – Folder 4/40
That afternoon in the Viceregal lodge in the Phoenix Park, the Viceroy, Lord Wimborne was informed that the Prime Minister thought it would be ‘helpful if he resigned’, which he duly did.
Gavrilo Princip, assassin of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, dies in Terezin, Austria-Hungary, after three years in prison.
Gavrilo Princip, assassin of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, dies in Terezin, Austria-Hungary, after three years in prison.
The SS New York with Diarmuid aboard finally left Liverpool bound for New York.
Sir Horace Plunkett in a letter to President Wilson’s close advisor, Colonel House, attempted to describe the Irish situation regarding conscription: ‘Ireland is quite justified in holding that immunity from conscription during the last two years was a recognition of her political grievances and she had the strongest moral right to furnish her quote of manpower in her own way...( the British Government ) have committed themselves to a policy which they ought to have known would have the most formidable opposition. Yet to withdraw from it would be a confession of weakness...the Irish people, more united than ever before, and incited by their church to resist the British authority, are about to submit their grievances to the President...therefore he might think well of averting possible diplomatic and domestic embarrassment by expressing his opinion upon the issues raised ...he might thus have an opportunity to relieve, if not save, an Irish situation far more dangerous than the British Government realise..’
Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Independence 1866-1922’. Devin-Adair. 1957. p.246
Western Front: Battle of Scherpenberg, final phase of Operation Georgette.
Letter from Kathleen Lynch to her sister-in-law, Mary:
Distillery House
Jones Road Distillery
Dublin
30th April ‘18
My dear Mary.
No doubt you have been expecting a line from me before now, but it's only by degrees we are arriving back to our normal conditions.
Hope you found all in Granig & Cnoc in good form on your arrival home.
I had hoped to see you again before you left town to tell you of my Liverpool experiences. I had a terribly rough time of it there at the hands of the detective there who took Diarmuid completely into their charge on our leaving the train. They allowed me to walk with D to the Bridewell, but refused to let me see or speak with him after that. When I stated that I was his wife, they put me under arrest as an alien & being in a prohibited area without being registered & informed me I had committed a grave offence against the Defence Of the Realm and was liable to six months imprisonment.
You can imagine the state of my feelings then, with Diarmuid taken away from me and nothing but imprisonment in a foreign country. Eventually they decided to pack me out of Liverpool that night & I was put on a train for Holyhead by four detectives, & put in charge of the train guard in case I might escape.
I finally arrived in Kingstown on Friday morning in a half dead condition.
I had a wire from Diarmuid on Saturday night from the ship to know if I arrived safely and we heard today that he did not sail til yesterday (Monday) thank God he is at last out of their clutches.
Denis, Alice & myself saw Michael yesterday, he was in very good form and looked much better, he is still in hospital, but no improvement in his diet so far.
With fond love to Dan, Tim & self
yours affectionately,
Kitt.’
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 4/42
The Pig Push
Written by Cathal Mac Dubhghaill in April 1918 and 'dedicated to Diarmuid Lynch, Sinn Fein Food Controller', this rebel political ballad commemorated the actions by Lynch which led to his jailing and deportation.
Mac Dubhghaill's personal story is of particular interest.
Born Cecil Grange McDowell, from Carlow, he was the organist and choirmaster at Saint John’s Church of Ireland, Sandymount, Dublin and a vestry member. He was also an engineer with Dublin Corporation and an artist who specialised in architectural work. He went on to change his name to Cathal Mac Dubhghaill, forsook his background to join the rebellion in 1916 and he wrote the first arrangement of the Irish National Anthem.
While he was fighting with Eamon de Valera at Boland’s Mills in Easter Week 1916, he was baptised a Roman Catholic by a Father O’Reilly from Westland Row. After the rising, he was prisoner in Richmond Barracks and Frongoch, in 1918 wrote 'The Pig Push' commemorating Diarmuid Lynch along with "We'll crown De Valera King of Ireland", "Pop goes the Peeler" and 'The Rocky Road to Berlin"
In 1921 he married the poet Maeve Cavanagh MacDowell of the Irish Citizen Army. She was a sister of the cartoonist, Ernest Cavanagh, who was killed in 1916 and who is remembered especially for his cartoons in the The Irish Worker of William Martin Murphy during the lockout in 1913, depicting him as ‘William Murder Murphy’.
Cecil McDowell or Cathal Mac Dubhghaill died 10 years after the Rising in Nice in 1926.
Thanks to Patrick Comerford: http://www.patrickcomerford.com/2016/07/the-doctor-countess-and-organist-1916.html
Written by Cathal Mac Dubhghaill in April 1918 and 'dedicated to Diarmuid Lynch, Sinn Fein Food Controller', this rebel political ballad commemorated the actions by Lynch which led to his jailing and deportation.
Mac Dubhghaill's personal story is of particular interest.
Born Cecil Grange McDowell, from Carlow, he was the organist and choirmaster at Saint John’s Church of Ireland, Sandymount, Dublin and a vestry member. He was also an engineer with Dublin Corporation and an artist who specialised in architectural work. He went on to change his name to Cathal Mac Dubhghaill, forsook his background to join the rebellion in 1916 and he wrote the first arrangement of the Irish National Anthem.
While he was fighting with Eamon de Valera at Boland’s Mills in Easter Week 1916, he was baptised a Roman Catholic by a Father O’Reilly from Westland Row. After the rising, he was prisoner in Richmond Barracks and Frongoch, in 1918 wrote 'The Pig Push' commemorating Diarmuid Lynch along with "We'll crown De Valera King of Ireland", "Pop goes the Peeler" and 'The Rocky Road to Berlin"
In 1921 he married the poet Maeve Cavanagh MacDowell of the Irish Citizen Army. She was a sister of the cartoonist, Ernest Cavanagh, who was killed in 1916 and who is remembered especially for his cartoons in the The Irish Worker of William Martin Murphy during the lockout in 1913, depicting him as ‘William Murder Murphy’.
Cecil McDowell or Cathal Mac Dubhghaill died 10 years after the Rising in Nice in 1926.
Thanks to Patrick Comerford: http://www.patrickcomerford.com/2016/07/the-doctor-countess-and-organist-1916.html
The Pig Push
Dedicated to Diarmuid Lynch, Sinn Fein Food Controller.
Air - "The Wearing of the Green"
I met a friend the other day and this is what he said:
"Sinn Feiners they are out again, the streets are running red
The slaughter it was dreadful, thirty four of them are killed
"I never in my life" said he "saw blood so freely spilled"
So, says I to him "Your dreadful tale, it fills me with dismay,
And have thirty four Sinn Feiners bold in Dublin passed away?"
"No it's pigs, you fool that's killed" says he "myself, I saw it done"
"T'was Diarmuid Lynch that did the work, be the hokey there was fun"
Chorus
We'll have pig's cheeks and pork chops enough for you and me;
There'll be rashers for our breakfast and sausages for tea.
The boys they commandeered the pigs and drove them down the street.
Says they "The common Irish should have something nice to eat"
And though all the pigs they kicked and squealed and struggled very hard,
They slaughtered all the thirty-four in the Corporation Yard.
Oh! The boys they worked like divils, though their lives were not insured,
And they sent the pigs to Donnelly's on motors, to be cured.
While the peelers stood like fairies, or like dainty little elves,
But they moved no pigs at all until they moved away themselves.
Chorus
We'll have pig's cheeks and pork chops enough for you and me;
There'll be rashers for our breakfast and sausages for tea.
Though the great Pig Push is over, other drives will come to pass;
We'll commandeer the "G" men* next, and then you'll see some gas!
When the pigs they squealed the other day they raised a dreadful din,
But they'll hear the 'G' Division* squeal as far off as Berlin.
Just imagine Johnny Barton** chopped in hams and pork steaks neat,
Sure his dainty little crubeens would be tasty things to eat.
And though we'd miss his features, if he ever had them spoiled,
His cheek is something dreadful, and I like to see it boiled.
Chorus
We'll have pig's cheeks and pork chops enough for you and me;
There'll be rashers for our breakfast and sausages for tea.
* G-Men and G-Division: a plainclothes divisional office of the Dublin Metropolitan Police concerned with detective police work
** Johnny Barton: Detective Sgt John Barton of DMP "G" Division. Assassinated by Vinnie Byrne of Michael Collins "The Squad" on 29 November, 1919 aged 39. Known and feared by many since the 1913 Lockout, the Rising and combating the Irish Volunteers from 1917 onwards. More details on Barton here.
Lynch's actions as Food Controller & his subsequent Dundalk jail wedding in 1918 became part of modern fiction in "A Star Called Henry" by Irish writer Roddy Doyle.
First published in 1999, the novel is set in Ireland in the era of political upheaval between the 1916 Easter Rising and the eventual truce signed with the United Kingdom in 1921, as seen through the eyes of young Henry Smart.
View details here
The General Prisons Board, Ireland report for 1917-1918, listing prisons, borstals, statistics and special arrangements for prisoners jailed under the Defence of the Realm Act (DORA).
An interesting factual snapshot of all institutions in the island of Ireland between 1917 and 1918.
Click to download a .pdf copy.
An interesting factual snapshot of all institutions in the island of Ireland between 1917 and 1918.
Click to download a .pdf copy.